Chelsea out to stop PSG completing clean sweep in Club World Cup final
soccer
By Andy SCOTT
Chelsea must somehow try to stop an irresistible Paris Saint-Germain side from adding the Club World Cup trophy to their UEFA Champions League title as the final of the first edition of FIFA's expanded competition takes place on Sunday.
PSG travelled to the United States fresh from becoming European champions with a stunning 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan in Munich in late May, and they have lived up to their favorites tag at the Club World Cup.
Luis Enrique's side put four goals past Atletico Madrid in the group stage, four more past Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the last 16, and then proved too strong for Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
They appeared to hit new heights as they tore apart Kylian Mbappe's Real Madrid in the last four, when their 4-0 winning margin could have been far greater.
The Parisians now stand on the verge of an extraordinary achievement, as they look to complete a clean sweep of trophies in this marathon 2024/25 season and add the world title to their French and European crowns.
"That is the objective we have had since the beginning but it is always very difficult to achieve these things -- very few teams can do what we are trying to do," said Luis Enrique after the semi-final.
PSG are therefore overwhelming favorites for the game which will be played at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium in New Jersey -- with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop -- and which is set to be attended by Donald Trump.
However Desire Doue, one of their standout performers during a remarkable campaign, insisted there were no concerns about complacency.
"We are not over-confident, not at all," France international Doue told reporters before PSG trained at Rutgers University, south of New York City, on Friday.
"We have been favorites for most matches in this competition and throughout this season, but what matters is what we do on the pitch."
Chelsea have plenty of reason to believe too, with Sunday's game finally wrapping up a campaign in which they won the UEFA Conference League and also finished fourth in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League.
While PSG lost to Botafogo during the group stage, Chelsea were also beaten by Brazilian opposition in Flamengo.
However, they have gone on to defeat Benfica as well as two other Brazilian teams, Palmeiras and Fluminense, to reach the final.
"If everyone thinks we are going to lose, then we have nothing to lose. We have to go out there and play our football, be confident and hopefully try to surprise everyone," defender Levi Colwill said on Friday.
PSG's record against English opposition in 2025 shows the size of task facing Chelsea -- the French club faced four Premier League teams in the Champions League and beat them all, from Manchester City and Liverpool, to Aston Villa and then Arsenal.
"It is a super high-level game. They are one of the hottest teams in the world at the moment but this is the final, a one-off game," said Reece James.
"Everyone has them down as strong favorites but I have been in many finals before where we have been favorites and we have not come out on top.
"I don't really care that everyone is bigging up the opposition. We are just preparing in the right way and we are going out to win."
The match brings down the curtain on a month-long competition that FIFA is already hailing as a huge success.
But concerns over the heat of an American summer have plagued the tournament, with Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez saying Friday that playing in the middle of the afternoon was "very dangerous" -- Sunday's game will kick off at 3 p.m. local time.
Whatever happens in the final, the tournament has already been a huge success for the participants from a financial viewpoint.
Chelsea and PSG are assured to go home with over $100 million in prize money, with the definitive amount to become clear after the final -- that money will be particularly welcome for Chelsea after they were recently fined by UEFA for breaching financial rules.
© 2025 AFP
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