There was little in the way of celebration from Chelsea's players after the final whistle was blown against Al Hilal. Romelu Lukaku, the match-winner, was hunched over. Mateo Kovacic too. The rest simply went through the usual post-match routine. There was little indication the Blues had reached yet another final.
Perhaps that was because Chelsea had been pushed very hard by Al Hilal during the Club World Cup semi-final. The CAF Champions League winners certainly made it difficult for Thomas Tuchel's side. They couldn't simply go through the motions.
Lukaku's 32nd-minute goal proved enough for the Blues to progress to Saturday's final against Palmeiras. Win that and Chelsea will have claimed every trophy possible since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
"I think that we are well prepared for this tournament and final," assistant coach Zsolt Low, who stood in for the absent Thomas Tuchel, said after last night's game. "The most important thing is we play a little bit freer in the final with a better rhythm.
"The game today, it was good to play for the first time in this stadium, to acclimatise to it. We know they (Palmeiras) are a very big club in Brazil. They have a lot of good players. In the coming days, we'll watch the videos and analyse their games. We'll be well prepared."
As Low admitted, Chelsea will need to produce a far more polished performance to overcome Palmeiras, who won the Copa Libertadores in November. The sluggishness and indecisiveness that permeated their semi-final victory must be eradicated. There must be greater energy shown in and out of possession.
The problem is this has been the case for around eight weeks. In December, Chelsea's lacklustre displays were put down to injury and several positive Covid tests within the squad. In January, the Blues' lethargy was blamed on a crammed fixture schedule.
But the international break was meant to change all that. The majority of Chelsea's first-team players were given a week off to rest and recharge, to switch off from the demanding 2021/22 campaign.
Tuchel felt the break had paid off, as he explained last week prior to testing positive for Covid and being forced into a period of self-isolation.
"It helped a lot and was absolutely necessary," the Chelsea head coach explained last Friday. "We were the team that played the most matches and had the least break between matches.
"That cost us a lot of energy, and that was absolutely necessary for everybody. So it's great to be back, it's a busy month ahead and we're looking forward. It's good that it's like this."
There was hope Chelsea would be back to their all-action best against Plymouth on Saturday in the FA Cup. Instead, the performance was listless and the League One side were only dispatched after extra time.
Again, excuses were made. Some felt Chelsea needed to get back into match-rhythm after the break. Others stated the Blues players just needed to rediscover their sharpness.
There was no marked improvement against Al Hilal, however. So the obvious question must be asked: Why are Chelsea no longer able to produce their best football?
The answer to that may be as simple as the injuries sustained by Ben Chilwell and Reece James. The former has been absent since the end of November after he suffered a season-ending ACL tear against Juventus. And the latter has been ruled out with a torn hamstring since the start of the year.
Both were instrumental to Chelsea's attacking play earlier in the campaign; Chilwell dominated the left flank from wing-back with James doing the same on the right. Their stand-ins, Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta, do not have the same technical and physical gifts.
As a result, Tuchel tweaked his system last month to take attacking responsibility off the wing-backs. The Chelsea head coach deployed a 4-2-2-2 and 4-3-3 with greater emphasis placed on those in the final third to provide a creative spark. Hakim Ziyech has responded to the challenge. The jury remains out on the other attackers in the squad.
The system that Tuchel and his coaching staff settle upon for Saturday's game against Palmeiras will be intriguing. It may even define the destiny of the trophy. Much has been made of the value Brazilian clubs place in the Club World Cup, so Chelsea will not be able to sleepwalk their way through another 90 minutes.
"We expect a very hard game in the final with a lot of spectators from Brazil," Low said. "It will feel like an away game. That makes things more difficult but we're ready to play the final. We're here to win."
To do that, Chelsea will need to wake up from their slumber. It's time for the Blues to remind the world why they are European champions.
