The winger had put us in front against Flamengo with his second goal of the Club World Cup – a cool finish after stealing possession and running clear from the halfway line.

However, it was not a lead the Blues could hold on to. A brace of quickfire Flamengo goals shortly after the hour turned the game around and, as he analysed the game, Pedro explained where things went wrong and how they can be fixed.

‘I think it’s about having the responsibility,’ he said. ‘It’s not about being naïve, it’s about desire as well. In the first half, we didn’t start as well but you can see from our plays, even getting the yellow card, we were stronger in the duels.

‘We started well in the second half, better than the first half, but then maybe we were not so strong when they had the ball. We were not as competitive as we were in the first half. That made the difference.

‘When I speak it's always as a team, it's not as individuals,’ Pedro added. ‘So I speak as a team, we have, like I said, to give the next step if we want to win more important things. And this is what we have to do, we have to work even harder.’

With that attitude in mind, Neto refused to use the heat or the state of the respective teams’ season as an excuse for our loss. ‘We are here to win it,’ he stated. ‘If we are to win it, we have to take those conditions with us and work even harder.’

Having earned a spot in this showpiece global tournament, the 25-year-old also says the Blues should play with gratitude and enjoyment. He has certainly made an impression in our opening two games, and remains positive the Blues will have a knockout tie to look forward to next weekend.

‘I am always confident. We are Chelsea, we play to win, and we have an unbelievable team.

‘So it's like I said: we have to continue to win experience, to have matches in the legs, to continue to work hard, and to be consistent.

'We have to be thankful; we are here playing this tournament. There would be a lot of players who would love to be in my place [at the Club World Cup.'