New signing Joao Pedro netted a brace on his first start as Chelsea defeated Fluminense 2-0 on Tuesday to seal a spot in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Pedro opened the scoring in the first half of the last-four clash and got on the score sheet again shortly before the hour mark.
He broke the deadlock on 18 minutes after controlling the ball on the edge of the box after Silva had cleared a Pedro Neto cross and curled a shot beyond veteran goalkeeper Fabio into the far corner.
Fluminense were then awarded a penalty 10 minutes before the interval when a set-piece delivery by Rene struck the arm of Trevoh Chalobah in the box.
However, French referee Francois Letexier overturned the decision following a VAR check.
Chelsea got their second on 56 minutes, just after Fluminense had sacrificed one of their three centre-backs to send on an extra attacker.
Enzo Fernandez released Pedro on the break, and the forward who scored 10 goals in the Premier League last season for Brighton produced another clinical finish in off the bar.
Signed from Brighton and Hove Albion just last week for a reported £60 million the 23-year-old Brazilian striker cut short an off-season holiday and made his debut off the bench in the 2-1 quarter-final win over Palmeiras.
He was then handed his first Chelsea start up front against Fluminense in place of the suspended Liam Delap.
4 Comments
Well its bye bye to osimhen, nicholas jackson red cards and poor finishes. And hello to jaoa pedro. Now chelsea may have a chance to challenge for titles and puts the osimhen talks to rest.
A lot of top clubs or winning clubs are not signing African playing players or they will sign them but they aren’t a strong starter or important player to the team, but will most likely come off the bench. Man city, real madrid, bayern, etc win without having an african playing players or an african who is very important to the team or plays a major part.
Napoli owner said he’s not signing any african playing players because of afcon (idk if he enforced it) and that if he does sign them they will have to sign a contract to not play in African competitions because of osimhen, especially since he always came back injured. De laurentis the business man. Jurgen klopp expressed his frustration on sala leaving for afcon. African media took offense. Barcelona got rid of frank kessie. Onana was hesitant to play for cameroon. He came later to the competition when they got eliminated in afcon. I understand the sentiment of african competitions to african people and that’s all they have. But it has become a nuisance with so many delays, moving the competition and playing while club competition is still going on. Theres rainy season and dry season. But afcon, the same tournament where the referee ended the match at 85 mins between mali and tunisia?
Pep guardiola always wins with non african playing players. He only gets south americans and european players, I saw that fact on sky sports. Now look at chelsea, a lot of african european players and they are doing well. When afcon came man city was the least affected. The most affected were the bottom teams which is where most nigerians play lmaoo. I remember seeing how forest lost half of its squad and that season they finished just above relegation. Now look at forest now, they changed their lineup. Look at Awoniyi. Hes a scrub and a bench player. Chris wood, a new zealand player is now the star of the team, he replaced Awoniyi. Other than Aina, most of the African players are on the bench like Willy Boly. Forest changed it up, now the starting team is mostly europeans and south americans. When top clubs are signing African players, it will be the european ones, france, uk, netherlands, etc. Forest had elenga who plays for sweden and hudson odoi who plays for england.
And then you will see countries like ghana and ivory Coast trying to get kobe mainoo and marc ghuie to switch allegiance after getting their first call up when they haven’t been watching them, only calling them when a european team calls them up. Teams want south american and european players because they play in the summer with their national team. If a team is trying to be on top of the table having a player that plays for Africa, they will get burned in the long run. The best thing to do is to get the most out of the player before afcon rolls up. Literally why players won’t switch allegiance to african countries, nothing good comes out of it when you are trying to have a successful club career. The only thing is making the african fans happy. But for europe, quality pitches, top care and actually getting paid.
I was listening to a uk football podcast and the person who called up was tunisian. And he said he doesn’t like afcon, especially with the timing taking place. And how they should be cautious about giving mo salah a new contract.(he later renewed for 2 years) because the next afcon is coming soon and he will miss at least a month away from the team where he is very vital.
So all this your long essay wey yuh write, wetin be youre point? E be like say you dey practice self hate because everting yuh write is pro Europe and Anti Africa ? Abi yuh ma wan be European as well? Ehn why yuh nor apply join dem na, mumu man. Kwasia!
Oh boy learn to love youreself an stop al this self hate! Robbish!
Forgot to add….its one game, lets see if jaoa pedro continues. But after europe, south america specicially brazil is where a lot of european clubs are searching for the next best thing. Because brazil has a very good league, its not a surprise that fluminese made it far. The only edge for the european teams is…they have brazilians too lol. They literally have a channel where its all about brazilian players who are connected to a european team in europe like its cnn
We are going to win this CWC. Blues for life. Pedro is the latest hero. Next season is Chelsea’s.