The misjudent of Flamengo was held up to a 1-1 draw by Los Angeles FC in their last group match at the Club World Cup on Tuesday, but the Brazilian side is still in the knockout phase with some momentum after another strong performance.
Denis Bouanga posted the MLS club Vooruit in the 84th minute, but replacement Wallace Yan reacted two minutes later to ensure that Flamengo would develop unbeaten to his last 16-drawing game against Bayern Munich in Miami on Sunday.
With the top location in group D already insured, Flamengo -coach Filipe Luis made seven changes in his starting side, but there was no change in the style that all the Rio de Janeiro Club wins on Chelsea and Esperance.
With a little more accuracy for the goal, the side would have comfortably defeated a LA FC side that had already been sentenced to an exit of a group stage after losing its first two games without scoring a goal.
«We had a great group stage,» Felipe Luis told reporters. “We achieved our goal early, so we were able to bench players with yellow cards and give minutes to players who had not played yet.
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«We had rhythm and we had opportunities to score. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. We are very happy, no injuries and a great group phase, and now we think of Bayern and nothing but Bayern.»
Bouanga had plowed a lonely above all evening as the lonely striker, but when his chance from Tom Tillman’s quickly came out and hit the ball between Agustin Rossi’s legs for the first goal of his team of the tournament.
The Flamengo fans were silenced, but Jorginho, who had emerged as a replacement for Bouanga’s goal only a few minutes, found Yan with a sharp pass and the 20-year-old hit through four defenders in the box and pushed the ball past Hugo Lloris.
The woodwork played a more role than both goalkeeper in the first half with Flamengo’s Danilo, Giorgian de Arascaeta and Pedro who all hit the frame of the goal, together with La FC’s Marky Delgado.
Flamengo continued to dominate the possession with its quiet passing match in the second half, and it seemed just a matter of time before the breakthrough came.
Lloris, however, took out a Save of World Class. Pedro sent the ball over the bar with an acrobatic bicycle shovel and the Arascaeta hit the woodwork for the second time with a rasphot that came off the bar.
