Paris Saint-Germain dominated Real Madrid at MetLife Stadium, winning 4-0 with ease to advance to the Club World Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday.
Luis Enrique’s side were in control from the first whistle and went two goals ahead with only nine minutes on the clock.
Fabian Ruiz opened the scoring after Ousmane Dembele pounced on a loose touch from Madrid centre-back Raul Asencio. Then in the ninth minute, a mistake by Asencio’s defensive partner Antonio Rudiger allowed Dembele to race through and beat Thibaut Courtois in the Madrid goal.
While the first and second goals came from bad Madrid errors, PSG’s third was breathtaking, a blistering attack finished by Ruiz which gave Xabi Alonso’s side a real mountain to climb. Their substitute Goncalo Ramos then made it 4-0 in the 87th minute, equalling Madrid’s biggest defeat of the season.
Madrid offered little threat of their own, with Kylian Mbappe, who swapped Paris for the Spanish capital last summer, and the Ballon d’Or runner-up Vinicius Junior both disappointing in New Jersey.
PSG will now face Chelsea in the final at this stadium on Sunday afternoon (3pm ET, 8pm BST).
Tim Spiers, Jack Lang and Mark Carey analyse the key talking points…
Dembele is a transformative presence for PSG
Before the Champions League final in May, there was a lot of discourse about Ousmane Dembele and the Ballon d’Or. Luis Enrique was asked about it. So was Dembele himself, who presented the straightest of bats in response. “Everyone keeps talking about that, but when you play for PSG, there are much more important things than individual awards,” he told TNT Sports. “It’s more about the group.”
The injury that kept Dembele out of the start of PSG’s Club World Cup campaign pushed his candidacy down the news agenda. Now, though? We are surely heading for a fresh wave of memes and questions after a display that highlighted his importance to the best team on the planet.
Dembele drifted. Dembele sniffed danger. Dembele dropped deep, dragged Madrid’s defenders so far out of their comfort zones that they had to call taxis to get back. He pressed, chased, forced mistakes, conjured the first two goals from nada. He finished the second himself, surgically.
Then, when PSG showed that they could slice through Madrid as well as shake them down in their own box, Dembele played the killer pass, sending Achraf Hakimi clear down the right ahead of the third goal.
Goncalo Ramos, who started up front for PSG at the beginning of the tournament and tagged in for the final half-hour here, is a good player. Dembele, though, is a great one, as well as a genuinely transformative presence in this team. He should probably clear some space on his mantelpiece for the odd unimportant individual award, just in case.
Jack Lang
Analysing Madrid’s dreadful defensive errors
The Club World Cup semi-final; 80,000 fans in attendance, two of the world’s best teams on show and some of the best players on the planet doing battle.
Or, in Madrid’s case, an opportunity to showcase defending that wouldn’t look out of place from a pub team.
We knew PSG would produce some scintillating football and ask serious questions of Madrid, but surely nobody predicted Madrid would wilt under pressure and gift PSG two comical goals inside a shambolic opening 10 minutes.
Two horrific individual errors from dozing defenders laid both goals on a plate. In fact, the only question was whose mistake was more heinous.
Raul Asencio won the dereliction of duty award for the first goal in the sixth minute, dawdling in possession 10 yards from his own goal line, allowing Dembele to win the ball.
Thibaut Courtois, who had already made two fine saves by this point, brought Dembele down but, before the referee could award a penalty, Ruiz stroked the loose ball home to make it 1-0.
The gaffe capped a humiliating tournament for Asencio, who had conceded a penalty against Al-Hilal and was sent off against Pachuca.
Three minutes later, Antonio Rudiger took home the slapstick comedy gong after trying to play a simple pass across the back line with his right boot but accidentally nudging it with his left, leading to him kicking nothing but air.
Cue Dembele, again, smelling the danger, winning the ball and ruthlessly beating Courtois.
It was a crazy start to the game that had Madrid shaking their heads, PSG bullishly celebrating and neutrals slack-jawed. Madrid never really recovered thereafter and the defensive shambles heightened how much they already missed suspended new signing Dean Huijsen.
Tim Spiers
PSG’s breathtaking third goal was a thing of real beauty
Barely 24 minutes on the clock and your team is 3-0 up. It is the sort of goal that you work on in pre-match training, but one that rarely occur in games — let alone against Real Madrid.
Yet somehow, Paris Saint-Germain are making a habit of working the ball from back to front with the pace of a counter-attack but the considered choreography of a set-piece routine. Having circulated possession for over 30 seconds already, PSG worked the ball back to Gianluigi Donnarumma, who played it wide to Achraf Hakimi.
On the one hand, you have to criticise Real Madrid’s poor pressing from every member of their front line — which had a domino effect to their team-mates who were forced into making up ground that they simply couldn’t reach in time to get anywhere near the PSG players.
On the other hand, PSG’s understanding of each other’s movements bordered on telepathy. Gentlemen, take your positions.
As Hakimi receives the ball, PSG midfielders emptied the midfield for Desire Doue to drop into — with Madrid centre-back Antonio Rudiger nowhere near to the France international who scored twice in the Champions League final against Inter Milan last month. A pair of one-twos with Doue and Dembele saw Hakimi race beyond Madrid’s last line, leaving a simple pass across goal for the box-crashing Ruiz to finish for his second goal of the game.
Football can be terribly simple when played with such quality. There are many holes that you can pick in Madrid’s defensive output, but PSG’s third goal was a thing of beauty and should be rightfully lauded.
Mark Carey
Mbappe and Vinicius just don’t work hard enough
When talking about Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, we have to agree on two things.
The first is that the pair are elite attackers, possessed with blistering pace, world-class skill, and an ability to decide the outcome of a game single-handedly. However, we also have to agree that neither have any desire to work particularly hard off the ball.
This is not new information, but with Real Madrid being ripped apart by PSG on a sweltering afternoon at the MetLife Stadium, the lack of defensive acumen in Xabi Alonso’s front line was laid bare for the world to see.
Aside from the heat, there is little excuse for either player’s lack of defensive intensity when their direct opponents — Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia — are three of the world’s best at pressing from the front. As Madrid found out, the lack of defensive work has a domino effect elsewhere across the team.
It was Mbappe’s former manager, Luis Enrique, who has previously pleaded with Mbappe to switch on defensively when he was at PSG, and it simply feels as though the French international just does not have the capacity to implement his manager’s instructions out of possession.
Without him, PSG are European champions and are now favourites to become world champions — that might not be a coincidence.
Mark Carey
Luka Modric and the end of a Real Madrid era
Was this how he imagined it?
You’d guess his dreams would have involved a packed Santiago Bernabeu, a European game under the lights or one last Clasico, maybe a final trophy for the road. Seventy minutes spent spraying the ball around, a couple of assists and then a standing ovation. Over and out.
Instead, Luka Modric got this: an hour on the bench, sweating in the New Jersey fug, the camera picking him out for a misery shot every time PSG walked through the amorphous non-entity formerly known as the Madrid midfield en route to goal. Oh, and a thankless task of a run-around with the game already over.
The 39-year-old, who is set to join Milan in Serie A, is one of the modern greats, a footballer of rare talent, grace and longevity. Madrid fans will still be talking about him 100 years from now, still drooling over their one-man rhythm section. They won’t have much to say about his final send-off, sadly.
Proof, if it were needed, that legends don’t always leave the stage in the manner they deserve.
Jack Lang
Do Chelsea have a chance in the final?
Hmm, good question.
Well, let’s assess their paths to the final. Chelsea have beaten Benfica, Palmeiras and Fluminense, whereas PSG have beaten… oh, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, scoring nine goals in those wins and conceding none. Forget about that, then.
How about the fact that fellow English sides Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal pushed PSG all the way in the Champions League this year? Although, actually, PSG won each tie and then walloped Inter Milan 5-0 in the final. Yep, forget that too.
Well, maybe PSG will be tired after a long season? OK, we’re just clutching at straws here.
However, contrary to reports, PSG are human beings and, well, Chelsea have a history of winning big finals against the odds (Champions League final 2012 and 2021). They didn’t have Robert Sanchez in goal for those games, yes, but you just never know.
What you would say in possession-happy Chelsea’s favour is that at least they have the capacity to attempt to control the game more than Madrid did here; by the hour mark, PSG had played 476 passes to Madrid’s 168.
But, yeah, on paper, that’s about it. PSG will be overwhelming favourites and it will probably take Trevoh Chalobah and Tosin Adarabioyo having the games of their lives to give Chelsea a chance. Is it too late to ask FIFA to forfeit the game?
Tim Spiers
When is the final?
Sunday, July 13: PSG v Chelsea, Club World Cup final, MetLife Stadium, 3pm ET, 8pm UK time
(ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
