The never-ending season had the never-ending game. This was Chelsea’s 61st match of a gruelling campaign and they emerged victorious only after the competing forces of the erratic American weather and the pedantic interference of the video assistant referee dragged it into extra time in Charlotte, North Carolina.
There cannot have been a weirder denouement to a football match. There was a delay lasting close to two hours because of a thunderstorm, a contentious equalising penalty from Benfica after play resumed, a red card and, perhaps least expected of all, a decisive goal from Christopher Nkunku to send Chelsea through to the last eight of the Club World Cup.
