Palmeiras – Chelsea

Palmeiras will not be able to face a stellar opponent

The rivals for the Anglo-Brazilian clash in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup are approaching the head-to-head encounter with mixed feelings. On the one hand Palmeiras and Chelsea are now in the part of the tournament grid that does not include PSG, Bayern and Real Madrid. They can only meet one of the mentioned superclubs in the final. In the semifinal stage, the representative of Brazil or England goes to the winner of the pair Fluminense - Al-Hilal, who in the 1/8 finals removed Inter and Manchester City respectively from the way. On the other hand, the upcoming game for both Palmeiras and Chelsea will be extremely difficult. The former has yet to face opponents of this level in the tournament. The London club has the third most expensive squad in the world, which is valued at 1.15 billion euros. Of course, it is impossible to compare the Blues with Al Ahli and even Porto. Chelsea itself has a bitter experience of competing with Brazilian Serie A teams during the current BSC draw. In the second round of the group stage, the English team failed to meet Flamengo, so they must be doubly vigilant. Bookmakers have identified the representative of Europe as the favourite for the upcoming confrontation, offering odds of 2.06 on his victory. Palmeiras went through the group stage without defeat, but got only one victory. Al Ahli managed to beat them. The Brazilian club solved the issue of playoffs in the third round, when they managed to score two goals in the end of the meeting with Inter Miami. In the 1/8 finals Palmeiras had 120 minutes of initiative in the confrontation with Botafogo. The opponent tried to prevent him from playing, but allowed him to score a goal in the first extra time. Botafogo was so inconsiderable that it lost its head coach following its elimination from the playoffs. It cannot be said that Chelsea demonstrated a dominant level in their group, but the team achieved confident victories over Los Angeles and Esperance with a total score of 5:0. In the 1/8 finals, the Blues competed against Benfica, who only just beat Bayern Munich in the group. To beat the Portuguese in regular time Chelsea was prevented by the hated for everyone suspension of the match, associated with "waiting" bad weather. However, the English club achieved a 4-1 rout in the extra time. The Blues are likely to win in regulation time.