PSG embarrasses Real Madrid in one-sided Club World Cup semifinal, confirms its supremacy

Yahoo

2 days ago

Real Madrid was no match for Paris Saint-Germain, the undisputed best team in the world. PSG will meet Chelsea in the Club World Cup final. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Real Madrid is the most successful club in the history of soccer, the most popular sports team in the world, with wealth and aura in epic proportions. It is Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr., and two dozen others who comprise the most valuable squad in the sport. And yet, on a boiling Wednesday afternoon here at MetLife Stadium, it melted like cheap butter under the searing pressure of Paris Saint-Germain.
This, the second Club World Cup semifinal, was supposed to be a clash of giants. It quickly turned into a bludgeoning.
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Real Madrid was sleepy and sloppy. PSG was ruthless, and smashed the so-called kings of Europe, 4-0.
The Parisians could've scored twice in the first five minutes. Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois denied them, but only delayed the inevitable. Fabian Ruiz scored in the sixth minute. Ousmane Dembélé pounced on a mistake in the ninth. Ruiz scored again in the 24th, and some of the 80,000 Real Madrid fans in attendance got out of their seats and sulked toward the concourse.
They had filled MetLife Stadium to the brim. They were buoyed by the return of Mbappé, who started his first game of this Club World Cup at the tip of a star-studded attack — and against his former club.
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But Los Blancos were outrun and overrun by the reigning champions of Europe, by the team that recently stole their crown.
They were pinned back into their own defensive half, pulled side to side, and punished for their lack of focus and intensity — punished by the undisputed best team in the world.
Ruiz tore them to shreds, sneaking toward and into the penalty area. He nearly curled a fourth-minute shot past Courtois, before Real Madrid had even woken from its siesta.
Twenty-five seconds later, Hakimi crossed to Dembélé, and only a sprawling Courtois kept PSG at bay.
But not for long. A minute after that, Désiré Doué danced down the right. His cross was cut out; but then Raúl Asencio spaced out. Dembélé nicked the ball off Asencio, evaded Courtois, and Ruiz scored easily.
The left side of Madrid's defense couldn't come to grips with the fluid four-man combinations of Ruiz, Achraf Hakimi, Doué and Dembélé. Asencio and Fran Garcia were overwhelmed, and looked out of their depth. They told of an unbalanced squad, headlined by Galacticos but filled in with relatively average role players.
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That unbalanced squad ran into a thoroughly brilliant one, an optimized machine. PSG's possession was equal parts commanding and dynamic. Its pressing, as always, was aggressive, coordinated and relentless. It was led by Dembélé, who returned from his injury and jumped Antonio Rüdiger, the aging center back who was once so crucial to Real's dominance.
Here, in the ninth minute, Rüdiger was culpable. He accidentally and clumsily tapped a ball with his plant foot. And Dembélé said goodnight.
All three first-half goals came from the PSG right — or the Madrid left. The third was the prettiest — but also the most damning. It was essentially five passes — Hakimi to Doué, Doué to Hakimi, Hakimi to Dembélé, Dembélé to Hakimi, Hakimi to Ruiz — that took the Parisians from back to front, then into the box. They met hardly any resistance. It looked like a counterattack; but no, it was just Real Madrid's openness.
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PSG's dominance wasn't confined to one side of the field, though. Nuno Mendes, the do-everything left back, was everywhere. He was bombing down the wing, bamboozling Real Madrid by inverting into the half-space, and even chasing down Vinicius Jr. when the Real Madrid star looked to be in on goal in the first half.
Like against Inter Miami in the Round of 16, PSG was so far and away the better team that it downshifted in the second half. Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia exited. Those who stayed in the game seemed to be saving their legs for Sunday's final against Chelsea.
But like against Inter Milan in the Champions League final, even when they downshifted, they were better. Goncalo Ramos scored a fourth goal off the bench late on. Real Madrid shoulders slumped.
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By the 90th minute, it was no contest. Despite a cooling break, merciful referees opted to not add any stoppage time. Szymon Marciniak, the head ref, blew his whistle. And Real Madrid, which brought more eyeballs to this Club World Cup than anybody else, slumped out of the competition, one step short of the final.
Here's how the match went down in real time: