Substitute Bruno Henrique played a starring role as Flamengo came roaring back in the second half to beat Chelsea 3-1 at the Club World Cup on Friday (Jun 20), maintaining an impressive record for South American teams so far at the competition.
Pedro Neto had given Chelsea the lead in the first half but Flamengo, roared on by their frenzied supporters who made up the majority of the 54,019 crowd, did not deserve to be behind and produced a stunning fightback after the interval.
Bruno Henrique came off the bench in the 56th minute and equalised for the Brazilian giants just after the hour mark before setting up Danilo to make it 2-1.
Chelsea were stunned, and their hopes of pulling level again were effectively destroyed when substitute Nicolas Jackson was sent off in the 68th minute.
Wallace Yan, also on as a substitute, then sealed the victory for the Rio de Janeiro club, the Brazilian league leaders, when he made it 3-1 late on.
With two wins from two at the tournament, Flamengo are now on the brink of qualification for the last 16 from Group D.
Chelsea, meanwhile, were unable to repeat the victory obtained in their opening game against Los Angeles FC but will be hopeful of securing a place in the knockout phase in their final group outing against Esperance of Tunisia.
The result follows Botafogo's stunning success against European champions Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday, stretching the unbeaten record for South American clubs at the competition to nine matches.
Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca made four changes to his line-up following the win over LAFC in Atlanta, with new signing Liam Delap coming in for his first start up front.
Delap had an early effort tipped over but it was Neto who gave Chelsea the lead in the 13th minute as he pounced on a slip by Wesley to run through and score a second goal in as many games at FIFA's new competition.
