Soccer-Flamengo happy to progress after 1-1 draw with LA FC

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ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -Misfiring Flamengo were held to a 1-1 draw by Los Angeles FC in their final group match at the Club World Cup on Tuesday but the Brazilian side still go into the knockout stage with some momentum after another strong performance.

Denis Bouanga put the MLS club ahead in the 84th minute but substitute Wallace Yan responded two minutes later to ensure Flamengo would progress unbeaten to their last-16 tie against Bayern Munich in Miami on Sunday.

With top spot in Group D already assured, Flamengo coach Filipe Luis made seven changes to his starting side but there was no change to the style that already earned the Rio de Janeiro club wins over Chelsea and Esperance.

With a little more accuracy in front of goal, they would have comfortably beaten an LA FC side who were already condemned to a group stage exit after losing their first two games without scoring a goal.

“We had a great group stage,” Felipe Luis told reporters. “We achieved our objective early so we’ve been able to bench players with yellow cards and give minutes to players that hadn’t played yet.

“We had rhythm and we had chances to score. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. We are very happy, no injuries and a great group stage, and now we’re thinking about Bayern and nothing but Bayern.”

Bouanga had ploughed a lonely furrow as the lone striker all evening but pounced when his chance came from Tom Tillman’s quickly taken free kick, slotting the ball between the legs of Agustin Rossi for his team’s first goal of the tournament.

The Flamengo fans were silenced but Jorginho, who had come on as a substitute only minutes before Bouanga’s goal, found Yan with an incisive pass and the 20-year-old skipped into the box through four defenders and slid the ball past Hugo Lloris.

The woodwork played more of a role than either goalkeeper in the first half with Flamengo’s Danilo, Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Pedro all hitting the frame of the goal along with LA FC’s Marky Delgado.

Flamengo continued to dominate possession with their calm passing game in the second half and it looked only a matter of time before the breakthrough came.

Lloris, however, pulled off a world-class save to deny Everton, Pedro sent the ball over the bar with an acrobatic bicycle kick, and de Arrascaeta hit the woodwork for the second time with a rasping shot that came down off the bar.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)