Nigerian midfielder Onuche Ogbelu was in action for 90 minutes, but could not help Tunisian giants Esperance avoid a 2-0 defeat to Flamengo in their Group D opener of the FIFA Club World Cup early Tuesday morning in Philadelphia.
Goals from Uruguayan international Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Luiz Araujo gave a dominant Flamengo the perfect start to the tournament.
Flamengo is coached by former Atletico Madrid Chelsea left-back Filipe Luis.
The Brazilian heavyweights, who qualified for the tournament as a recent winner of the Copa Libertadores (South American Champions League) fielded a strong side featuring several Brazil internationals.
Also, the club gave a debut to Italy midfielder Jorginho following his recent arrival from Arsenal.
Jorginho will come up against former club Chelsea when the teams meet in their second match on Friday, with the Premier League club fresh from beating Los Angeles FC 2-0 earlier Monday.
De Arrascaeta opened the scoring for the Rio de Janeiro outfit in the 17th minute when he finished first time from a Araujo assist.
Also Read: WAFCON 2024: Super Falcons Want Tenth Title — Ajibade
That set off wild celebrations among the Flamengo fans, who made up the majority of the 25,797 crowd in a stadium which can hold close to 70,000.
Flamengo had chances to score more goals while Tunisian champions Esperance created little before their Algerian winger Youcef Belaili almost equalised midway through the second half.
Then with 20 minutes left Flamengo got their second goal, as Jorginho found Araujo who capitalised on the pocket of space he had in the box, turned and curled a low shot into the far corner.
In the group’s first match, Chelsea recorded a 2-0 win against Los Angeles FC.
Pedro Neto broke the deadlock on 34 minutes before Enzo Fernandez added the second in the 79th minute.
Onuche and his Esperance teammates will hope to bounce back from the defeat when they will take on Los Angeles FC on Friday, June 20 while Chelsea and Flamengo will also battle on yhe same day.
The 22-year-old started his career at Fosla Academy and helped them win the 2021 Principal’s Cup.
In December 2022, Ogbelu joined the Nigerian football club Nasarawa United, then on 30 September 2023, he signed a three-year contract with Espérance.
In April 2022, he was called up to the Nigerian under-20 side, Flying Eagles, for the 2023 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations.
In February 2023, he was selected in the final Nigerian squad for the U-20 African Cup of Nations held in Egypt as the team reach third place.
By James Agberebi
