FIFA Club World Cup 2025 ended today with Chelsea pummeling Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in a dominant display by the Blues. The sold-out crowd of 81,118 was treated to two of the best teams in the world: the winners of the UEFA Conference League against the winners of the UEFA Champions League. Cole Palmer’s brace and Joāo Pedro’s goal highlighted the dominance of the Blues in the first half. The crowd also got a treat in a halftime show that would rival a Super Bowl’s, with performances from Tems, J Balvin, Doja Cat, and Emmanuel Kelly with Coldplay.
Chelsea came out in a 4-2-3-1 formation with newcomer João Pedro as their lone striker. Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, and Marc Cucurella anchored the backline for the Blues. Reece James was placed as one of the defensive midfielders paired with Moisés Caicedo, with Enzo Fernandez centered between Pedro Neto and Cole Palmer up high.
Paris Saint-Germain came out in a 4-1-2-3 formation, emphasizing attacking play with three players up high, who will ultimately be responsible for pressing (specifically on goal kicks). Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, arguably the club’s fastest players, were placed high in attack and have been effective the entire tournament. Their midfield, consisting of Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha, and João Neves, kept a tight formation in the middle and sat fairly low. The backline for the Parisians consisted of Nuno Mendes, Lucas Beraldo, Marquinhos, and Achraf Hakimi.
The Parisians saw their first real chance in the 15th minute on a counterattack. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was flying down the left side with PSG set up for a 3 v 1 on the counter. The Georgian national sent a beautiful low cross the width of the pitch, through the box, and between the last defender and the keeper. The ball landed perfectly at the feet of Désiré Doué, who saw Ousmane Dembélé unmarked in the center of the 18-yard box. Right when Doue attempted to center the ball to Dembélé, his passing line was cut off, and Chelsea recovered possession.
Désiré Doué came back two minutes later, danced around two Chelsea defenders, dribbled toward the center of the box, and fired a shot to the lower right post. The attempt forced a diving save from Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez, who cleared the ball from play.
Chelsea broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute with a clinical goal from Cole Palmer, his 17th of the season. A long ball down the right flank reached Malo Gusto, who dribbled toward the 18. His first attempt was blocked, but landed back at his feet. Once he sized up his defender, he calmly laid the ball off to a surging Cole Palmer, who spun around his defenders and bested Gianluigi Donnarumma with a low shot to the keeper’s right.
In the 30th minute, just after the cooling break, Cole Palmer struck again, getting his brace on the afternoon. The Englishman mimicked his first goal to the T, as he gathered possession outside the right side of the 18. He slowly dribbled toward the center of the box and beat Donnarumma yet again with a low ball to his right.
In the 43rd minute, Cole Palmer played the role of assistant as new signing João Pedro notched his first goal of the match, bringing Chelsea’s total to three. While Chelsea were mounting their attack in PSG’s defensive half, Palmer had possession and read the defense. When he saw a streaking Joāo Pedro, he sent a through ball that broke the backline and set up Pedro in open space. In a 1 v 1 with the keeper, he beat Donnarumma to his right, to put the Conference League champions ahead 3-0 over the Champions League champions.
PSG came out flying in the second half, moving with urgency as their Club World Cup hopes were dimming by the minute. Robert Sanchez proved why he’s Chelsea’s starting goalkeeper with repeated saves in the opening eight minutes. Chelsea’s switch to a low block meant PSG would be afforded more chances in attack.
Just seconds after being subbed into play in the 67th minute, Liam Delap tested Donnarumma from distance (about 20 yards out) and forced a diving save, full stretch, from the Italian international. The ensuing corner kick fizzled, but the new signing from Ipswich Town immediately made his presence felt.
In the 79th minute, after a missed tackle, Delap found himself 1 v 1 with the keeper with a defender trailing close behind. Opposing a one-touch shot, he tried dribbling around Donnarumma on the second touch, which gave the Italian the time to stretch his body and easily block a low attempt.
Tempers flared in the final 10 minutes as both sides were beginning to lose composure. Things finally boiled over from the Parisians after João Neves was sent off for a hair pull on Marc Cucurella. The Spaniard gave a friendly elbow to the chest of Neves off the ball, and he responded with a hair pull that dropped the defender to the pitch. The referee initially issued a yellow card, but after VAR review, a red card was issued and Neves was sent off.
Chelsea’s celebration on the pitch after the whistle was short-lived after both sides collided. Blues boss Enzo Maresca was seen having to intervene with Donnarumma, his national team captain, and separate him from the fray.
Chelsea defender Levi Colwill completed 27 passes in today’s final and earned a well-fought clean sheet. They were brilliant in how they handled the heavily favored Parisians in the match. “We came out, went man for man, and pressed them,” said Levi Colwill post-match. “We knew with the new guys coming in, we had a really good chance. We’ve enjoyed being together all the time.”
The award ceremony will probably be the most talked-about topic for the rest of the day. The minute the sold-out crowd caught sight of FIFA president Gianni Infantino walking on the pitch with President Donald Trump, the stadium erupted with boos. The noise was so pronounced that DAZN had to transition multiple times while also changing the audio. It would be enough if it ended there, but the President joined Infantino on stage with owners Todd Buehly (Chelsea) and Nasser Al-Khelaifi (PSG) to hand out medals. This is where things get awkward.
When the trophy was handed over to Reece James to lift with his teammates, Trump never moved. Players are seen looking confused, and Infantino comes back to bring him out of frame, but he refuses. The result will be talked about for weeks.
The World Champion Chelsea Football Club will finally, at long last, enjoy a break before a pair of friendlies brings them back to work. At their home stadium of Stamford Bridge, the Blues will host German club Bayer Leverkusen on Aug. 8 and A.C. Milan on Aug. 10.
Paris Saint-Germain will have a short break as well before they head to the Stadio Friuli in Italy to face off with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Super Cup, where the Champions League winner faces the Europa League winner.
The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 ultimately was a success. With a few hiccups in the beginning and a handful of surface complaints (especially from PSG manager Luis Enrique), the biggest threat against the tournament was scheduling. Weekday matches at football (NFL) capacity stadiums made a large number of matches look near empty, but that shouldn’t be a problem for the World Cup. The Club World Cup wasn’t well publicized in all of the host cities, and in the U.S., a lot of fans were only interested if their club was taking part. Next year, entire countries will be following their teams’ every move, so attendance shouldn’t be an issue.
Cheers to a fun tournament that saw epic matchups and the merging of great fan bases!
-Jon Jones
Photos: Getty Images