New Jersey, July 9 || Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca praised new signing Joao Pedro and expressed satisfaction after his team booked a place in the FIFA Club World Cup final with a 2-0 win over Fluminense on Wednesday (IST).
"The last few years have not been what this club deserves, but this year luckily things went pretty well, and now we are in the final," said Maresca. "We are very proud to help the team be back where they deserve to be."
"We are very happy and very proud to be in the final on Sunday because this is the first edition of the (revamped) Club World Cup and the best clubs in the world are here," the Italian added.
Pedro, making his first start for Chelsea since joining from Brighton & Hove Albion last week, made an immediate impact. The 23-year-old Brazilian striker scored on either side of halftime at MetLife Stadium near New York City, reports.
"I am very happy for Joao. He has the quality to decide games like today," Maresca said. "We knew what Joao was like. We brought him in because this season we faced many teams with low blocks and his quality is very good against these kinds of teams."