🔎 The Debrief as Boca and Benfica get heated while Chelsea's class shows | OneFootball

The Club World Cup delivered another day of entertainment on Monday with several big hitters in action.

Here's what happened.

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What happened? 📝

📸 Alex Grimm - 2025 Getty Images

Chelsea opened their Group D campaign with a 2-0 win over LAFC in Philadelphia with new signing Liam Delap producing an assist on his debut for the Londoners.

Things got lively in Miami as Boca Juniors and Benfica were reduced to nine and 10 men respectively while playing out a pulsating 2-2 draw at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Flamengo rounded off the day with a comfortable 2-0 victory over ES Tunis.

Player of the day 🔥

For all the talk about Delap, it was one of Chelsea's previous summer signings who ran the show as their class shone through at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Pedro Neto opened the scoring for the Londoners with a sublime piece of skill and continued to wreak havoc for LAFC's defence throughout the Group D encounter.

The Portugal international has been one of the Blues' standout performers in the past 12 months and should have scored a second late on but for the crossbar.

Stat of the Day 📊

What this means 🤔

📸 PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA - AFP or licensors

Identical victories for Flamengo and Chelsea sees them level pegged at the summit of Group D ahead of their highly-anticipated showdown on Friday in Philadelphia.

Boca's fiery draw with Benfica saw both clubs fail to close the gap on Bayern Munich, who hold a two-point cushion atop Group C after the opening games.

What they said 🗣️

📸 FRANCK FIFE - AFP or licensors

Flamengo manager Filipe Luís was pleased with how his side handled their opening win over ES Tuns: "After the first goal we slowed down a bit and that cost us a bit of time with the ball. But in the second half we managed to score the second goal and a great win, three points. Now we have to face the next chapter for this group, Chelsea is a difficult team."

Elsewhere, Enzo Maresca is taking a philosophical view on Chelsea's striker conundrum: “I am quite curious to see how Nico deals with competition. Hopefully both strikers can score goals and assist. We had two or three months last season without Nico and Marc Guiu. It is a nice feeling for a manager to have two strikers.”

After failing to beat Boca, Benfica's Ángel Di María did not hold back on their overall display: "We know what Argentinian football is. We knew how we had to play, but in the first half we didn't play that way. We needed a bit more. In the second half we played much better. We tried to win the game at the end, but we couldn't quite do it."

What's next? 👀

Tuesday sees more European heavyweights in action as Borussia Dortmund take on Fluminense at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium in Group F's opening clash.

Elsewhere, Mamelodi Sundowns and Ulsan go head to head in Orlando.

That is followed by Champions League finalists Inter faing off against Monterrey while Group E also sees River Plate and J-League's Urawa Red Diamonds do battle.

📸 CHANDAN KHANNA - AFP or licensors