Philadelphia (AFP) – Brazilian giants Flamengo set themselves up for a Club World Cup showdown with Chelsea by easing to a 2-0 win against Esperance of Tunisia in their opening game at the tournament on Monday.
Goals either side of half-time from Uruguayan international Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Luiz Araujo gave a dominant Flamengo — coached by former Chelsea player Filipe Luis — a deserved victory in the Group D clash in Philadelphia. Flamengo, who qualified for the tournament as a recent winner of the Copa Libertadores, fielded a strong side featuring several Brazil internationals and gave a debut to Italy midfielder Jorginho following his recent arrival from Arsenal.
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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 at Lincoln Financial Field when he finished first time from a Luiz Araujo assist. 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 increase their lead while Tunisian champions Esperance created little of note before their Algerian winger Youcef Belaili almost equalised midway through the second half. Shortly after that, Flamengo scored again, as Luiz Araujo found a pocket of space in the box in the 70th minute, turned, and curled a low shot into the far corner to make it 2-0.
© 2024 AFP
