“It doesn’t make sense for Brazil to try to compete with European clubs in terms of finances,” Fluminense coach Renato Gaúcho said through a translator. “Brazilian clubs trade players and sell them to Europe so they can survive, and that’s been true even since I was a player.”

Rare is the day a player earns a first start for their new team in the semifinal of a competition despite being under contract with an entirely different club during the group stage, but leave it to the new-look Club World Cup to shoehorn a new quirk into the structured soccer calendar.

The club's new signing scored twice against Fluminense but there was much more to admire about his game on Tuesday

With new Chelsea signing Joao Pedro scoring a brace against his former club Fluminense at their Club World Cup semifinal, the gauntlet has been laid in the battle for who should start at striker for Chelsea.

Chelsea's search for a centre-forward has been far, wide and expensive - but has Joao Pedro already shown he could be the answer?

Chelsea's latest shiny new toy glistened on debut in the sweltering Philadelphia air during the Blues' 2-1 win over Palmeiras, and he repeated the trick on Tuesday night against former club Fluminense, sending Enzo Maresca 's men on their way to a comfortable win with a sumptuous curling effort after 18 minutes.