By Greg Robertson
Chelsea V Benfica – just how good does it get? Chelsea is at Stamford Bridge today hosting Portuguese club SL Benfica. The home side takes a 1-0 advantage into the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
We bring you live updates, video highlights and all the action. Make sure you refresh your browser occasionally as to not miss out on any of the action. We’ll warn you with ‘video coming soon’ and ‘video up’ when we’ve added video to the player. It’s minute-by-minute stuff from the Bridge.
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LIVE COMMENTARY… FINAL Chelsea 2 Vs Benfica 1 (Aggregate 3-1)
39 mins: Right lads and lasses, we're over our technical difficulties and the Lampard penalty is up. Young was bustled off the ball and despite Artur guessing the correct way, Lampard had too much gas on the spot kick.
Okay… we’ve missed the first 20 minutes but our record is now working. IT PROBLEM. We’ll bring you the goal soon... VIDEO UP OF LAMPARD PENALTY.
Kick off is not far away so in the meantime watch highlights of the first leg match between Benfica and Chelsea.
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Teams
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Ramires, Mata, Kalou, Torres. Subs: Turnbull, Essien, Drogba, Meireles, Ferreira, Sturridge, Cahill.
Benfica: Artur, Emerson, Pereira, Capdevila, García, Cesar, Aimar, Gaitán, Matic, Witsel, Cardozo Subs: Eduardo, Nolito, Djalo, Nelson Oliveira, Rodrigo Moreno, Saviola, Andre Almeida.
Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)
Pregame banter
Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo insisted that their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie against Benfica was "far from over".
The English Premier League side hold a 1-0 advantage from the first leg, courtesy of Saloman Kalou's goal at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.
Chelsea have a 100 per cent record in Champions League matches at Stamford Bridge this season, in their last four matches they've scored 14 goals and conceded just once - it included Chelsea's 4-1 win over Napoli in the second leg of their round of 16 tie, which was also Roberto di Matteo first European game in charge of Chelsea.
A win for Chelsea would secure a sixth semi-final place in the Champions League in the last nine years but Di Matteo denied that complacency had crept into his squad and said "a 1-0 lead is basically nothing and our players are aware of the dangers."
Benfica have already played English opposition earlier in the competition, they drew twice with Manchester United in the group stage, including a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in November.
Benfica has trained at Stamford Bridge ahead of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg against Chelsea, keen to get into action live, streaming forward to secure the vital away goals they need.
The Portuguese side lost the first leg 1-0 at home and need a win to progress to their first European Cup semi-final for more than 20 years.
Benfica coach Jorge Jesus knows his side need to score and said his team will "approach this game by being offensive" and added that they "can take the game to Chelsea".
History is not on Jorge Jesus' side - only twice in Champions League history has a team recovered from losing the first leg at home to win the tie: Ajax against Panathinaikos in the 95/96 semi-finals and last season Inter Milan overcame Bayern Munich in the round of 16.
The two-time European Cup winners joined this years Champions League in the third qualifying round and in their six away matches so far they've won twice and drawn three times - their only defeat came away at Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg in their round of 16 tie.
Benfica have already travelled to England for a Champions League tie, they drew 2-2 with Manchester United at Old Trafford in the group stages.
Midfielder Bruno Cesar said he and his team-mates were "positive that we can get a good result and beat them (Chelsea)."
The winners of the tie will meet Barcelona in the semi-finals after the Spanish side beat AC Milan 3-1) to progress by the same scoreline on aggregate.
Jorge Jesus, Benfica manager (Question - Benfica have always been capable of scoring away from home, are you confident?) "Yes of course the away goals are important and we are going to approach this game by being offensive. Obviously we need to play as a team, we need to score to progress, that's obvious. Like I said, we are going to play an offensive game, an attacking game and I'm sure we can take the game to Chelsea."
Jorge Jesus, Benfica manager (Question - Benfica have a good recent record against English teams, including two draws against Manchester United, are you confident of continuing this run?) "It's true that we've had good results in the past against English opposition. I also, in addition to Benfica, had a good result with Braga against Arsenal, whom we beat 3-0 at the time. Obviously this time we've been placed in a very difficult situation, with Chelsea being one up from the first game, but again we are going to try to reverse that and continue this good run of results against English teams."
Bruno Cesar, Benfica midfielder (A lot of the talk in England before the game has been about Barcelona and AC Milan) "Obviously Chelsea will feel confident having won the last game. They achieved a positive result but we as a team stayed focussed, we're very calm and obviously respect Chelsea a great deal, but that won't stop us from going out and doing our best and we're positive that we can get a good result and beat them tomorrow night."
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source: newshub archive
