Chelsea took a long, long, long time to get going with any sort of real purpose or intent, but a quickfire double in first-half added-on time effectively decided the game, and would prove more than enough to advance to the knockout rounds of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Enzo Maresca made wholesale changes to the squad from the Flamengo defeat, and for a while it didn’t look like we would find any sort of coherent play as a result. But eventually the individual quality shone through, with Enzo Fernandez chipping a free kick into the box for Tosin to head home, then Enzo finding Liam Delap to showcase some proper number-nine play to quickly double our lead.
The second half was largely an exercise in keeping control and maybe scoring a few more. And we could’ve gotten at least a couple more, but Christopher Nkunku was denied a chance to take a penalty after VAR overturned a handball call. Tyrique George got a bit luckier at the very end, as the goalkeeper let a shot squirm through his hands to make it 3-0.
Job done.
Carefree.
* Starting setup: Gusto at (inverting) left back, Acheampong on the right, Dewsbury-Hall ahead of him on the wing; Madueke on the left. Nkunku in the middle, with Enzo advancing. Delap the big man up top.
* Andrey Santos making his debut in the second half! Mamadou Sarr then doing the same in the final ten minutes.
* Acheampong drawing multiple fouls and yellows for the opposition with some well-timed runs forward
* Tosin gets the Superior Player of the Match award
* Next up: the Round of 16, where we’ll take on Benfica, Saturday in Charlotte, NC
* KTBFFH
[PLAYER RATINGS](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6C8tlX5x8NARgUTLLy9f0n1ajZPPnecQwoNLCuDKYOmoDVA/viewform?usp=header):