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Chelsea vs LAFC live: Result and reaction as Neto stars in Club World Cup win
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC: Goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez secured victory in Atlanta
Chelsea opened their Club World Cup campaign with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win against LAFC in Atlanta.
With a trophy in tow after Conference League success capped a solid first season under Enzo Maresca, Chelsea will now hope to build and mount a more realistic title challenge in the Premier League next season. First, though, they will look to negotiate this competition, and began strongly enough with a goal in either half enough to meet their opponents from MLS. The bright Pedro Neto opened the scoring on the half-hour mark before Liam Delap made an impact on debut off the bench, creating a chance that Enzo Fernandez finished neatly.
Flamengo and Esperance de Tunis are the other pair of teams in Group D, with the top two advancing to the knockout rounds. The expanded competition is being held at 12 venues across the United States, with 32 entrants ranging from some of Europe’s biggest clubs to semi-professional Auckland City.
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And here's Liam Delap
“It’s a really happy feeling for me. I’m so excited to be here, play my first game and contribute. They’ve welcomed me really well. I can’t wait for more.
“It’s always healthy to have competition. It’s football and this is an incredible club, but you’ve got to thrive off the competition.”
Enzo Maresca speaks after Chelsea's win
“Very good result,” the Chelsea boss says. “The good thing about Liam is that he knows the way we want to play. We also gave a chance to Dario Essugo, so it was good for both of them.
“We need to recover, we have a game in three days. We are going to prepare in the best way and try to win.”
FT: Chelsea 2-0 LAFC
Comfortable enough for Chelsea in Atlanta, not too much to stress or strain the players. Pedro Neto was bright enough, and new recruits Liam Delap and Dario Essugo both went well off the bench.
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC, 90 + 3 minutes
Denis Bouanga really hasn’t been far away from breaking Chelsea open tonight. Malo Gusto just gets his challenge right, making enough contact to unsteady Bouanga as he enters the box but not enough to draw the referee’s whistle.
The final act of the game is nearly something spectacular: Pedro Neto flicks the top of the crossbar with a searing drive. That’s that, though.
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC, 90 minutes
Eddie Segura ventures forward out of defence to take an Olivier Giroud pass and fire away a shot, but a deflection takes the sting out of it and makes it easy for Robert Sanchez to gather on his knees.
Into three added minutes.
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC, 87 minutes
Yaw Yeboah and Marlon Santos are thrown on as LAFC search for a route back into the game late on.
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC, 84 minutes
A couple more changes for Chelsea, including the introduction of another new boy. The tough-tackling Dario Essugo comes on in midfield with Christopher Nkunku also utilised off the bench further forward.
Chelsea 2-0 LAFC, 81 minutes
Nearly one back! A driving run from Denis Bouanga, who hits the deck as he strikes under contact from Malo Gusto. There is no foul and Robert Sanchez is down swiftly enough to keep out the effort.
Gusto had initially totally misjudged the flight of a diagonal to let Bouanga in.
GOAL! CHELSEA 2-0 LAFC (Enzo Fernandez, 80 minutes)
A surge into the box and Enzo Fernandez doubles Chelsea’s lead!
Good goal, this. Liam Delap peels away to the right to collect a Cole Palmer pass, creating room up the centre. Fernandez fills it, injecting intelligently to latch on to Delap’s curling cross and ram it home.
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