Samba's back — and Chelsea couldn’t keep up with Flamengo’s dance!

The Brazilian side delivered a brilliant performance, scoring three goals to defeat Chelsea and proving that Brazilian clubs still have plenty to offer. We first saw that when Botafogo beat PSG — and Flamengo’s triumph now confirms it. This is the second win Flamengo made in group stage and they are will go to the next stage of the torunament.

The opening half delivered plenty of action and chances at both ends, with Chelsea taking a narrow lead into the break.

In the 5th minute, Flamengo’s Ayrton Lucas nearly opened the scoring with a powerful long-range effort aimed under the crossbar, but Robert Sanchez reacted brilliantly to deny him with a stunning save.

Just a minute later, Chelsea responded with a golden chance of their own. Liam Delap found himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Agustin Rossi after a precise through ball and aimed high, but the Flamengo keeper made a superb reflex stop to keep the score level.

The breakthrough came in the 13th minute when Pedro Neto produced a fantastic solo run and slotted the ball low and centrally past Rossi to put Chelsea 1–0 ahead.

Flamengo tried to respond, and in the 43rd minute, Gerson got on the end of a well-delivered cross and directed a strong header toward the top of the goal, but a Chelsea defender made a crucial block to preserve the lead.

Flamengo turned up the heat after the break, completely shifting the momentum of the match.

In the 54th minute, Gerson created danger with a strong run into the box, but his shot to the right was brilliantly blocked by Chelsea’s defense. Moments later, Gonzalo Plata missed a sitter, failing to tap the ball into an open net — a huge let-off for Chelsea.

Flamengo kept pushing, and in the 61st minute, Plata came close again with a fierce strike under the bar, only to be denied by an excellent save from Robert Sanchez. That effort earned Flamengo a corner, and they capitalized just a minute later.

In the 62nd minute, Bruno Henrique latched onto a perfect through ball and calmly slotted it into the bottom right corner to equalize. Just three minutes after that, Henrique turned provider — his low cross found Danilo, who tapped into an empty net to make it 2–1 for Flamengo.

Chelsea’s frustrations boiled over in the 68th minute when Nicolas Jackson was shown a straight red card for a reckless tackle, leaving his side with ten men and little hope of a comeback.

In the 83rd minute, Flamengo took advantage of having an extra man, and during a counterattack, Wallace Yan found himself in the right place to beat Sanchez and score his team’s third goal.

In the day's second match, Benfica comfortably defeated underdogs Auckland with a 6–0 victory, securing three points after their earlier draw with Boca Juniors. The game was temporarily halted due to forecasted storms but resumed later in the evening. The goals for the Portuguese side came from Di Maria, Pavlidis, Sanchez, and Barreiro.

FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP 2025

Matchday 2

Friday

Seattle - Atletico Madrid 1-3 (0-1)

/Rusnak 50 - Barrios 11, 55, Witsel 47/

PSG - Botafogo 0-1 (0-1)

/Jesus 36/

Benfica - Auckland 6-0 (1-0)

/Di Maria 45+8 pen, 90+8 pen, Pavlidis 53, Sanchez 63, Barreiro 76, 78/

Flamengo Chelsea 3-1 (0-1)

/Henrique 62, Danilo 65, Wallace 85 - Neto 13/