ENZO MARESCA labelled the decision to suspend Chelsea’s Club World Cup last-16 tie with Benfica for two hours “a joke” even as his side eventually ran out 4-1 winners.

The tie took almost five hours to complete after the teams were forced inside, with the Blues 1-0 up with four minutes remaining thanks to Reece James’s free-kick, due to “the risk of lightning in the vicinity of [Carolinas Stadium].”

On the resumption, Angel Di Maria equalised with a controversial stoppage-time penalty to take the game to extra time, only for Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to seal Chelsea’s win.

Maresca, in his press conference, said of the long delay: “I think it’s a joke, to be honest.

“It’s not football, it’s completely something new, I struggle to understand.

“I can understand if it’s security reasons but if you suspend seven or eight games then it’s probably not the right place to do the competition.

“It’s not normal to suspend the game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero probably. In Europe how many games get suspended? Zero.

“We’ve been here two weeks and they’ve already suspended six or seven games, there is some problems for me personally.

“I’m talking as a manager because when you’re two hours inside and you have to try to keep them [the players] in the game, they’re speaking to their families outside for safety reasons, they’re eating, they’re playing, they’re laughing, how can you keep them inside focused for two hours? It’s a joke.”

One of Maresca’s players at least was able to make light of the delay, which saw the game finish at 1.40am British Summer Time, with defender Trevoh Chalobah posting on social media: “Game started Saturday and ended Sunday.”

Players were pictured riding exercise bikes and kicking balls in the dressing room during the enforced break and Maresca told reporters: “Especially when it’s 85 minutes, five minutes to go, it’s very difficult.

“But we tried to keep them in the best way we could in that moment and, at the end, we are in the last eight teams here in this competition and we are very happy.”

Gianluca Prestianni saw red for Bruno Lage’s men in extra time for a second yellow card as Chelsea booked their place against Palmeiras in the quarter-finals.

The Blues could now come up against Palmeiras’ Stamford Bridge-bound Estevao Willian, whose side defeated fellow Brazilian club Botafogo on Saturday.