João Pedro de Chelsea marked his first spectacular fashion departure on Tuesday, marking twice to send the Premier League team to the Club World Cup final with a 2-0 victory against his Fluminense childhood club.
The 23-year-old Brazilian striker, signed by Brighton & Hove Albion for 60 million pounds Sterling (81.5 million dollars) last week, wrapped a fabulous shot in the 18th minute before sealing the victory with a brilliant finish after a counterattack at the start of the second half at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey.
Chelsea will face Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain, which will meet in the second semi-final on Wednesday, during the final on Sunday.
“I am happy to score my first goal, but I also know that this tournament is very important to them,” he said. “I can’t say sorry, but I have to be professional. I play for Chelsea. They pay me for it to score goals. And today I was happy to score.”
Fluminense de Rio de Janeiro is the last non -European team to be eliminated in a tournament where the four Brazilian participants reached the KO phase, two of which reached the quarter -finals.
After having previously appeared in the final in 2023 of the previous format of the Club World Cup, their return was prevented by one of their own.
Pedro came by Fluminense’s Youth Academy, but after 25 appearances in the Brazilian elite in 2019, she was in England to play first with Watford then Brighton. He then moved to Chelsea this summer.
He made his debut on the bench during the victory of Chelsea in the second round on Palmeiras in Philadelphia last Friday. And during his first departure on Tuesday, he only needed 18 minutes to put his old club behind.
He created the attack itself, winning the ball quickly in the midfield and playing Pedro Neto on the right. The low cross of Neto in the box was only erased to Pedro at the edge of the box, where it took two fast keys before folding a bright right foot finish beyond Fábio and in the upper right corner.
The arrival of his second strike in the 56th minute was even better.
After reaching the output ball of Enzo Fernández on the left, Pedro dribbled in the left side of the box, crossed a Fluminense defender to improve his angle of shooting, then pulled in another fierce strike which caught the underside of the crossbar on the goal of Fábio.
Between these goals, Fluminense saw two crucial chances are breaking against them later in the first half.
In the 26th minute, the defender of Chelsea Marc Cucurella slipped to erase the effort of Hercules out of the goal line with Robert Sánchez beaten.
In the 36, referee François Letexier replaced his own penalty decision following a video exam, deciding after consulting the replay that the arm of Trevoh Chalobah had been in a natural position next to his body.
The European teams will win their 12th consecutive and 17th club World Cup title in 18 trials, the only exception being a 2012 victory by the Corinthians of Brazil over Chelsea, which won in 2021.
Chelsea gained between $ 88,435,000 and $ 103,815,000 to have reached the final, the amount dependent on participation fees has not disclosed.
Despite a kick-off of the local time in the midst of high summer temperatures on the east coast of the United States, more than 70,000 fans filled the NFL house of the Jets and the Giants of New York to watch the semi-final.
The information from Reuters and the Associated Press was used in this summary.
