A Special night
It’s been nearly two and a half years since the Champions League anthem last sounded at Stamford Bridge. It’s been nearly twice as long since José Mourinho last stood on the sidelines. Now, the then Spurs boss returns to his one true love, nearly ten years after his second sacking, leading the team who had eliminated his previous team from this very competition. Modern football!
A month ago, José Mourinho was managing Fenerbahce against Benfica in the Champions League playoffs. Benfica won, 1-0 on aggregate, which got José the sack. Two weeks later, Benfica also sacked their coach, Bruno Lage. Two days after that, they appointed Mourinho.
“After 25 years [of coaching] I was expecting to go back to Portugal through the national team, not Benfica, and I’m back to Benfica so I don’t have a career project. I don’t try to think what can happen or what cannot happen. The important thing is giving everything.
“Now I’m in Benfica and very happy. It’s a big responsibility, even for a guy like me of years in football. Benfica is a huge responsibility for different reasons. […] I’m not a Blue any more. I’m a Red now and want to win.”
“I will always be a Blue. I am part of their history. They are part of my history. I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea. And they helped me to become a bigger José. When I say I am not a Blue, I am only speaking about the job I have to do tomorrow.”
-José Mourinho; source: BBC
The Special One’s back. The Champions League is back. Can we get winning back, too?
Date / Time: Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 20.00 BST; 3pm EDT; 12:30am IST (next day)
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Daniel Siebert (on pitch); Christian Dingert (VAR)
Forecast: A nice autumn night
On TV: TNT Sports 1 (UK); TUDN, UniMás (USA); none? (India); SuperSport Football Plus (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: discovery+ (UK); Paramount+, Univision NOW (USA); Sony LIV (India); DStv Now
Chelsea team news: Chelsea were back at the Bridge this weekend after four straight on the road, but it was yet another self-inflicted disaster, this time with a red card for Trevoh Chalobah helping us gift all three points to visiting Brighton. So that’s now one win, one draw, and three defeats in our last five in all competitions, playing just 60 minutes of our last two league games at full strength. Not ideal, from the red cards themselves to our responses to those cards on the pitch and in the dugout.
So, step one, I suppose, for this game will be to keep all eleven players on the pitch.
Step two will be to stop making silly mistakes and poor decisions and gifting goals to the opposition.
Step three could be to stop getting injuries, but that’s not always in our control.
To wit, Enzo Maresca might not have too many options at his disposal in this one, with Moisés Caicedo, João Pedro, and Andrey Santos all facing late fitness tests. Cole Palmer, Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap, Levi Colwill, and Dário Essugo have already been ruled out — the last three for a good while yet; Cole and Uncle Tosin until at least after next international break — while Wesley Fofana’s in concussion protocol.
Benoît Badiashile and Roméo Lavia did return to action over the weekend, coming off the bench in the second half to feature for the first time this season, but they may not be fully match fit just yet either.
Pressure has been growing on the head coach thanks to this “mini-slump”, and while the club briefed a vote of confidence in the manager to the media this week, we’re all clearly expecting better results.
Benfica team news: It’s two wins and a draw for Mourinho since taking charge ten days ago. Not bad, but that means Benfica are now already four points off the pace set by José’s first team, Porto, who are perfect through the first seven rounds. Not much room for error at the top of the Primeira Liga!
There’s a bit more room for error in the league phase of the Champions League, though like Chelsea, Benfica began their campaign with defeat. However, while ours was against powerhouse Bayern, away, they managed to drop all three points at home against Qarabag, and after taking an early two-goal lead, even! That’s the game that got Lage his walking papers.
Benfica have made several changes to their squad since we last saw them, and beat them, in the Round of 16 of the Club World Cup, with three players from their starting lineup alone now gone (Ángel Di María’s contract expired while midfielders Orkun Kökcü and Florentino Luís have been loaned out) and three of the five used substitutes also no longer there. Meanwhile, left back Álvaro Carreras, who was an unused sub in that game, completed his €50m move to Real Madrid.
Reinforcements have arrived, most notably at full back (Amar Dedić from RB Salzburg on the right, Samuel Dahl from Roma on the left) and in midfield, with Richard Ríos joining from Palmeiras. He had a good game against us in the quarterfinals of the Club World Cup for his former team. Forwards Franjo Ivanović and Dodi Lukébakio also arrived to take some of the load off leading goalscorer Vangelis Pavlidis, while loanees Enzo Barrenechea (from Aston Villa) and Heorhiy Sudakov (from Shakhtar Donetsk) have established themselves as regulars already.
Back in February, two Benfica players suffered ACL injuries literally within minutes of each other in the same game. Alexander Bah and Manu Silva are now both almost ready to return to action. Same cannot be said for winger Bruma, who tore his Achilles in a preseason match back in July.
Previously: We made it four wins from four against Benfica back in the summer, in what was a weird game that took nearly five hours to complete thanks to a lengthy weather delay and extra-time as well after we conceded a late equalizer. This is a different day and a different occasion of course, though Mourinho’s managed to win at the Bridge against Chelsea just once, on his first visit back, with Inter Milan in the 2009-10 Champions League Round of 16. He’s lost four of his next six visits since, three times with Manchester United and once with Spurs (he also got a draw once with each of them).
Category: General Sports