EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — João Pedro kept the celebrations to a minimum after scoring twice to send Chelsea into the Club World Cup final, his goals proving the undoing of his former club Fluminense in a bittersweet meeting at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Brazilian forward, who joined Chelsea from Brighton & Hove Albion six days ago, found the net in the 18th minute with a superb strike and again early in the second half with another excellent finish to seal his team’s 2-0 victory.
He held his hands up apologetically after each strike against the club where he spent his formative years, even as his teammates swarmed around him on the pitch, only briefly cracking a smile after the second goal.
“They [Fluminense] gave everything to me. They showed me to the world. If I’m here, it’s because they believed in me,” Pedro said. “I’m very grateful but this is football — I have to be professional. I feel sorry for them, but I have to do my job.”
Pedro made his debut for Chelsea in their 2-1 quarterfinal win over Palmeiras on Friday with only a couple of training sessions under his belt. Four days later, he was in the starting lineup.
“Today, I think because I started, I had more time to do my stuff and I had to score. The team won, the team played well and that’s important,” he said in postgame remarks on the telecast.
Pedro joined a month after Chelsea signed Liam Delap, as the club moved to plug a forward shortage.
Chelsea face the winner of the second semifinal Wednesday between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. The final is set for Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Enzo Maresca’s side is looking to build off a successful 2024-25 campaign in which Chelsea finished fourth in the Premier League and won the UEFA Conference League.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
