Nigerian midfielder Onuche Ogbelu was in action for 90 minutes, but could not help the Tunisian giant Esperance to avoid a 2-0 defeat against Flamengo in their group D-opener of the FIFA Club World Cup early Tuesday morning in Philadelphia.
Goals from Uruguayan International Giorgian de Arascaeta and Luiz Arajo gave a dominant flamengo the perfect start to the tournament.
Flamengo is coached by former Atletico Madrid Chelsea Left-Back Filipe Luis.
The Brazilian heavyweights, which qualified for the tournament as a recent winner of the Copa Libertadores (South American Champions League), played a strong side with various Brazilian internationals.
The club also gave a debut to Italy midfielder Jorginho after his recent arrival from Arsenal.
Jorginho will compete against former club Chelsea when the teams meet in their second game on Friday, with the Premier League club Vers of the beating of Los Angeles FC 2-0 earlier on Monday.
The Arascaeta opened the score for the Rio de Janeiro outfit in the 17th minute when he finished the first time with an Araujo assist.
Also read: Wafcon 2024: Super Falcons want tenth title – Ajibade
That caused wild parties among the Flamengo fans, who formed most of the 25,797 crowd in a stadium that can contain nearly 70,000.
Flamengo had opportunities to score more goals, while Tunisian champions Esperance created little before their Algerian wing player Youcef Belaili equalized almost halfway through the second half.
Then Flamengo got their second goal with 20 minutes, when Jorginho Araujo found it capitalized on the bag of the space he had in the box, turned and curled a low shot in the far corner.
In the first match of the group, Chelsea won a 2-0 win against Los Angeles FC.
Pedro Neto broke the impasse at 34 minutes before Enzo Fernandez added the second in the 79th minute.
Onuche and his Esperance teammates will hope to bounce back from the defeat when they take it against Los Angeles FC on Friday 20 June, while Chelsea and Flamengo will also fight on the same day.
The 22-year-old started his career at the Fosla Academy and helped them win the Principal’s Cup 2021.
In December 2022, Ogbelu joined the Nigerian football club Nasarawa United, and on 30 September 2023 he signed a three -year contract with Espérance.
In April 2022 he was called to the Nigerian under-20 side, Flying Eagles, for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations from 2023.
In February 2023 he was selected in the last Nigerian team for the U-20 African Cup of Nations in Egypt while the team reaches third place.
By James Jars
#FIFA #CWC #Ogbelu #Feature #Esperance #loses #Flamengo