08/07/2025

TUESDAY | JULY 8, 2025

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Gaucho’s chaos theory

‘Let’s go!’ Cucurella relishing Silva reunion as Chelsea battle Fluminense for place in CWC final

the group stage when they were beaten by Flamengo. The Blues are reaching the end of a draining season which began last August and in which they won the Europa Conference League and qualified for the Champions League. Cucurella said: “At this point, I think it is a good moment. We are in a good position. If we win one more game we can play a final. For all of us, it is very important. “At this moment, we do not think about the fatigue. If we are tired, we want to enjoy this moment. It is a good opportunity to make something important, to be proud of our work and to play for Chelsea.” An impres Cup seen Fluminense hold Borussia Dortmund in the group stage, eliminate Inter Milan in the last 16 and get the better of Saudi powerhouse Al Hilal in the quar terfinals. “If you had asked me beforehand if we would have got this far I would have said we were a long way away from doing so,” Silva told broadcaster DAZN after the vic tory over Al Hilal. “We know the financial size of these teams, the difference is enormous, absurd. But often our collective, the family atmos phere that we have, gives us strength that you maybe don’t think you have.” It is not just Silva raising the aver age age at Fluminense. There is also 44-year-old goalkeeper Fabio, wing back Samuel Xavier at 35 and 37-year old Argentine forward German Cano. But the man giving them the X-fac tor is 27-year-old Colombian winger Jhon Arias, unquestionably one of the players of the tournament. “I have watched some games that they have played and you can see that they are very well organised. They have some very good players. The manager is doing a fantastic job,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said. – The Independent/AFP has sive run at the Club World

games and they have conceded just three times. Cucurella said: “They have a very high level. They have shown in this tournament why they are going right until the final (stages). “We’ve played against two Brazilian teams so far and now we will face a third. They fight until the end. “We’re happy to be in the next round and to have this experience of playing against the South American teams, which isn’t very common. Overall, we’re enjoying this tourna ment.” Chelsea booked their trip to New York with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Palmeiras in Philadelphia on Saturday. They previously faced Brazilian opposi tion in

C HELSEA’S Marc Cucurella is looking forward to doing bat tle with former teammate Thiago Silva for a place in the Club World Cup final. Evergreen defender Thiago, who left Chelsea last year, is still producing impressive performances at the age of 40 for current club Fluminense. The two clubs meet in the semifi nals of this summer’s global tourna ment in New York

Champions League glory in 2021 – a victory which earned Chelsea their place in the Club World Cup – and he remains a popular figure at Stamford Bridge. After returning to Brazil, he helped Fluminense avoid relega tion last season and their unex pected run to the last four of this competition raised eyebrows. Thiago has started four of their five

FLUMINENSE VS CHELSEA Wed, July 9 3:00am (Malaysian time)

tomorrow (3am Malaysian time).

Fellow defender Cucurella said: “We’ve watched some of their games. They have very good players, they are very determined and they have Thiago Silva. “He’s a legend of football, a top player. He’s only played for big clubs and texted me before the (quarterfi nal) game saying, ‘Let’s go, hopefully we can see you in a couple of days.’ I texted him saying, ‘Let’s go!’ “We have the opportunity to play against him again and hopefully we can do good things and win this game and play in the final which is what we want to do.” Thiago is one of the great Brazilian defenders of his era and enjoyed an accomplished four-year spell with Chelsea in what was thought to be the twilight of his career after being released by Paris St Germain in 2020. His successes included

Cucurella (top) and Silva. – AFPPIC/ REUTERSPIC

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