does this synthesis work?

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thedarkhorse

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Step 1 will form Bromobenzene.
Step 2 doesn't seem likely to happen.

there is 2-chloroethanal and AlCl3 a lewis acid to react with bromobenzene. If one looks at the mechanism for Friedel-Crafts alkylation the lone pair on the Cl of 2-chloroethanal would go and attack the lewis acid forming Cl-AlCl3 leaving behind +CH2C=O(H) a primary carbocation which is highly unstable, here it has no C=C or benzene ring near it so no resonance stabilization, and it also has no room for rearrangement.

If step 2 doesn't happen the reduction of the aldehyde to a primary alcohol in step 3 is not gonna occur.

I might be off on this one, but this is the logic that came to my mind when I saw those steps.
 
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