João Pedro Breaks Fluminense's Heart to Send Chelsea to Club World Cup Final
- Daniel Rebain
- Jul 8
- 5 min read
Photo credit: Michael Regan - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
East Rutherford, NJ — Down to the Final Four of the 2025 Club World Cup, 2021 winners Chelsea FC would take on last tournament's runners-up, Fluminense, in front of a great mix of 70,556 fans at MetLife Stadium.
This first semi-final match would see one storyline rise above the rest as the new Chelsea signing, Joao Pedro, made his debut against his boyhood club from Brazil. Chelsea would go on to win 2-0, earning their spot in the Final, and Pedro was integral to the victory on Tuesday afternoon at the Meadowlands.
Growing up in Ribeirão Preto, a metropolitan area in the northeast of São Paulo, Pedro joined the Fluminense academy in 2011 at the age of nine. Fast forward almost a decade and Pedro was making his senior debut for the club. He played a total of 36 games for Fluminense, scoring ten goals and providing two more assists.
The semi-finals would mark Pedro's first game in blue after signing for the club from Brighton for a reported £55,000,000 ($74,700,000). Now, five and a half years after leaving the club for England, Pedro was back facing the club that meant so much to him in his career.
“I didn’t expect him to be inspired today; he hit some great shots," said Chelsea legend and Fluminense center back Thiago Silva after being eliminated from the Club World Cup. "One of our kids knocked us out of such an important competition, but good luck to him.”
Pedro played 60 minutes for Chelsea and made his mark on the game. The Brazilian scored two wonder goals to collect his first two goals and was named man of the match to send the London club to the Club World Cup final for the second time this decade.
The first ten minutes of the match would be dominated by a midfield battle, with both teams trading fouls. However, in the 18th minute, Chelsea would grab the opening goal.
On his full debut, João Pedro scored his first goal for the English side, poetically, against his childhood club. It was a failed clearance by center back Thiago Silva that went straight to Pedro right at the top of the box. One touch after getting the ball out of his feet, Pedro's right-footed shot curled into the far corner of the net past a diving Fabio.
After scoring his first goal for the club, instead of celebrating at the corner flag, Pedro raised his hands to show respect for the club where he had signed as a nine-year-old. “I went there and I didn’t have anything. They gave me everything, and they showed me the world. I am very grateful.”
Looking for a quick response following the Chelsea goal, Flueminese were mere feet away from equalizing in the 25th minute with their first high-quality chance of the game.
Flueminese midfielder Hercules played a beautiful one-two with German Cano and was sprung in behind the Chelsea defense all alone with goalkeeper Roberto Sanchez. Hercules was able to get to the ball first and poke it past Sanchez to equalize for the Brazilians. Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella had other ideas as the Spaniard was able to sprint to the goal-line and clear the ball away from danger to keep the Blues up 1-0 in the first half an hour of the game.
Ten minutes later, Flueminese had a shout for a penalty answered when French official Francois Letexier pointed to the spot. A Rene cross, off a free kick just outside the box, struck the arm of Trevoh Chalobah in the box, and the Brazilians had another chance to equalize.
That chance wouldn't last for Flueminese as VAR intervened. Upon further review, the penalty would be waived off due to Chalobah's arm being in a "natural position" according to VAR and Letexier.
After an eventful first half, which saw Chelsea edge the back-and-forth affair, the second half would be much more relaxed.
Flueminese seemingly had a chance to get on the scoreboard when Jhon Arias played an over-the-top through ball to a fresh Everaldo, who was just substituted onto the field. Trevoh Chalobah fell at midfield and Everaldo was now one against one with Tosin Abarabioyo. The 34-year-old was able to get his shot past Tosin and test Robert Sanchez at the near post, but Sanchez was able to get his hands on the ball and claimed the rebound.
The very next sequence, Chelsea would force a turnover, spring on the counterattack, and capitalize once again on a Fluminense mistake.
Flueminense midfielder Facundo Bernal saw his lazy pass at the top of the box intercepted by Pedro Neto, but it would be Cole Palmer who led the charge. Palmer would hold off three different tacklers who attempted to foul just before playing a backheel pass to Enzo Fernandez.
With the outside of his right foot, Fernandez sprang Pedro into a three-on-two break. Ignacio took away the space to the endline, so Joao Pedro cut inside with so much pace, it freed him up to blast a shot down off the crossbar and past Fabio, who could only admire the shot zipping by his head.
Chelsea's Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos told his countryman, Pedro, why he had so much success in the semi-finals. "In Brazil, we have the saying 'law of the ex'. He played in Fluminense for their academy," said Santos. "This guy is amazing, I'm so happy for him, and now we have to enjoy."
In his first competitive start for Chelsea, Pedro collected his first brace, and in doing so, became the first Chelsea player to accomplish that feat since Michy Batshuayi in the 2016 League Cup against Bristol Rovers, a 3-2 victory.
With full time winding down, Fluminense had a few half chances to cut the Chelsea lead to one and make this a close game with the time running down. The pressure wasn't enough for the Brazilians, who suffered their first defeat in 11 games in all competitions.
Fluminense run to a second consecutive Club World Cup Final but came up short in the end. The team showed they can play with the elite clubs in Europe, defeating Inter Milan 2-0, and getting a 0-0 draw against Borussia Dortmund in a game where they got the better of the Germans.
For Chelsea, their comfortable victory over Fluminense earned them a place in the Final on Sunday afternoon back at MetLife Stadium. Despite the Brazilians showing in this tournament, Chelsea were never really threatened other than that one Hercules chance. The team was defensively sound, lethal on the counterattack, and will have a chip on their shoulders with them set to be the underdogs in the Final.
All there is to do now for Chelsea is sit back, grab your popcorn, and watch the second semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid on Wednesday afternoon at their base camp in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Match Facts
Fluminense: 3-4-1-2 (HC: Renato Gaucho)
Fabio (GK); Ignacio, Thiago Silva, Thiago Santos; Guga, Hercules, Facundo Bernal, Rene; Nonato; Jhon Arias, German Cano
Bench: Yeferson Soteldo, Everaldo, Agustin Canobbio, Paulo Baya, Keno, Kevin Serna, Joaquin Lavega, Isaque, Vinicius Lima Ruben Lezcano, Ganso, Martinelli, Gabriel Fuentes, Manoel Messias, Samuel Xavier, Vitor Eudes
Chelsea: 4-2-3-1 (HC: Enzo Maresca)
Robert Sanchez (GK): Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, Tosin Abarabioyo, Malo Gusto; Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo; Christopher Nkunku, Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto; Joao Pedro
Bench: Noni Madueke, Marc Guiu, Nicolas Jackson, Liam Delap, Tyrique George, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Dario Essugo, Andrey Santos, Levi Colwill, Aaron Anselmino, Josh Acheampong, Mamadou Sarr, Filip Jorgensen, Gabriel Slonina, Mike Penders
Scoring Summary (Fluminense/Chelsea)
18': Joao Pedro (0-1)
56': João Pedro (0-2)
Stats (Fluminense/Chelsea)
Possession: 46% - 54%
Shots: 12 (3) - 17 (5)
Big Chances: 1 - 1
Expected Goals (xG): 0.95 - 1.71
Passing: 378 (88%) - 455 (90%)
Fouls: 11 - 11
Corners: 3 - 4
Discipline
59': Nonato (Yellow)
72': Yefereson Soteldo (Yellow)
74': Robert Sanchez (Yellow)
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