French-Congolese Benoit Badiashile hails Chelsea’s resilience after hard-fought win over Benfica

Chelsea defender Benoit Badiashile praised his team’s resilience after a hard-fought 1-0 Champions League victory over Benfica on Tuesday night.

The Blues secured the win thanks to an own goal by Richard Rios, while Benfica ended the match with Joao Pedro sent off in injury time.

Badiashile, who was born in France to DR Congolese parents, highlighted the mental toughness required in elite European competition.

“It was a tough game against a good opponent. We came away with the win, which was the most important thing every day. Of course, sometimes you have to suffer. The gaffer tried to explain in training how to suffer when the game is tough and today we did it well, so we are happy with this,” he said.

“We have to show that even in the tough moments, we are strong and we can compete at the highest level. I’m really happy, first of all, to be back with the team and second of all, for the win.”

Chelsea teammate Marc Cucurella echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the challenge of competing in Europe after a difficult domestic campaign.

“Every game in the Champions League is a tough battle. I think today we needed to suffer. We only scored one and at the end today we needed to suffer as a team. We were a man down, so we had to fight together. It was very good tonight,” he said.

Cucurella also reflected on the team’s recent struggles and the lessons learned.

“I think our run in the last few games was a bit tough for us. We lost a bit of confidence and conceded goals through easy mistakes. We need to improve this.

“Every game is an opportunity to learn and improve things. Today we showed that we are ready and we can fight for big things and play in big games. I’m very happy for the team today.”

The win provides Chelsea with an important boost in the group stage and demonstrates the squad’s capacity to grind out results even under pressure, setting the tone for the challenges ahead in the Champions League.