KNACK OF THE NETO

Pedro's strike lights up sparse crowd

- JOHN CROSS

IT WAS not the spectacular showpiece FIFA had been hoping for.

Just 22,137 fans turned up here and probably wished they had not bothered because Chelsea hardly set the world alight.

Pedro Neto got the ball rolling with a first-half opener before Chelsea substitute Liam Delap marked his debut with an assist to set up Enzo Fernandez to seal the win.

But this was far from the all-singing, all-dancing spectacular we had been promised, and instead we got what felt like a pre-season friendly with tired players in front of a stadium not even a third full.

Well, what do you expect if you put on a game in the middle of a normal Monday afternoon? Funnily enough, most people are at work.

It just looks bad because the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta is one of America's truly great stadiums as it holds 71,000 fans when full and cost more than $1bn to build.

But the most memorable thing about this remarkable venue and game was the huge swathes of empty red seats which only highlighted the issue of attendances at FIFA's new-look 32 team tournament.