Empty seats as Chelsea win opener at CWC, Benfica deny Boca

AFP, Philadelphia:

Chelsea began their Club World Cup (CWC) campaign with a 2-0 victory against Los Angeles FC in a largely empty stadium on Monday as Brazilian giants Flamengo also got off to a winning start and a Benfica comeback denied Boca Juniors in a stormy encounter.

As the inaugural 32-team tournament gradually kicks into gear in the United States, Chelsea followed fellow European heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Bayern Munich by claiming three points in their first group outing.

Yet while UEFA Champions League winners PSG were ominous against Atletico Madrid on Sunday, and Bayern put 10 past Auckland City, the Premier League team were more solid than spectacular against LAFC in Atlanta.

Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez got the goals for Enzo Maresca’s side in the Group-D match before nearly 50,000 empty seats at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium — not a great look for the tournament organisers.

New signing Liam Delap made his debut as a substitute and helped set up Fernandez’s strike, with Chelsea hoping to reestablish themselves among the elite after their recent UEFA Conference League triumph and Champions League qualification.

Maresca said it was a “very good result” and was happy with Delap’s display following his recent arrival from Ipswich Town.

“The good thing about Liam is he knows the way we want to play, so the process is quite quick,” said the Italian.

“The environment was a bit strange, the stadium was almost empty, not full,” added Maresca when asked about the crowd, as just over 22,000 attended the 71,000-capacity venue for a game played at 3:00 pm local time on a Monday.

LAFC were late qualifiers for the tournament, beating Club America in a play-off last month to replace banned Mexican side Club Leon.