Flamengo Advances After Beating Chelsea

Flamengo came back from a 1-0 deficit to beat Chelsea 3-1 in a Group D match. They secured their spot in the FIFA Club World Cup knockout stage at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday. Chelsea scored first in the 13th minute when Pedro Neto took advantage of a turnover in the middle of the pitch and struck with his left foot past Flamengo custodian Agustin Rossi.

Flamengo came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit with nonstop attacking play after the intermission. Bruno Henrique tied the game for Brazil in the 62nd minute by completing off a play that started when Gonzalo Plata headed the ball into his path.

Flamengo scored again three minutes later from a well-placed corner. Henrique made a perfect pass to Danilo, who scored from close range to put Flamengo ahead 2-1 in the 65th minute. Chelsea’s chances of coming back suffered a knock when Nicolas Jackson got a red card in the 68th minute. This left the English team with one less player for the rest of the game.

Wallace Yan scored Flamengo’s third goal in the 83rd minute, with help from the lively Plata. This placed the game out of Chelsea’s reach and kept Flamengo from losing in the competition.

Chelsea now has to beat ES Tunis on Tuesday in order to move on to the knockout stage. ES Tunis’s prospects went up when they beat LAFC 1-0 in their last encounter. In Group C, Benfica easily beat Auckland City, a semi-professional team, 6-0 on Friday.

Leandro Barreiro scored twice in a row, once in the 76th minute and once in the 78th minute. The game was momentarily stopped at halftime because of bad weather.