Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: PSG, Chelsea, Football, Luis Enrique, Cole Palmer
Luke Davies
Paris Saint-Germain have already qualified for a FIFA competition despite losing the Club World Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday (July 13).
The 2024/25 Champions League winners did not become world champions despite starting the match as favourites, as Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea put in a fine display with a Cole Palmer brace and Joao Pedro strike seeing the Blues home with a 3-0 win at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
PSG’s players and head coach Luis Enrique, were visibly frustrated after the final whistle before a physical altercation between the Spanish coach and goal scorer Pedro ensued.
After the incident, Enrique said: “I have no problem expressing my feelings at the end of the game in a high level of pressure. It’s very stressful for all of us. It is going to be impossible to avoid that.
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“Everybody was involved. It was not what was best, and the end result of the pressure of the match.
“I have seen [Enzo] Maresca. I saw he had pushed others, and we had to separate all the players, and I do not know where that pressure came from.
“But this is a situation we must all avoid, that goes without saying. My intention was to separate the footballers, so the situation didn’t become worse.”
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And despite being on the wrong end of the result, the Ligue 1 champions still have another FIFA tournament to look forward to, while Chelsea will not take part in the competition despite winning the Club World Cup.
Due to winning the Champions League, having beaten Inter 5-0 during the final back in May, PSG qualified for the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
The champions of all six FIFA confederations – PSG, Al-Ahli, Cruz Azul, Pyramids and Auckland City and the winners of the 2025 Copa Libertadores - will take part in the competition, with the final set to take place on December 17.
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Real Madrid are the current champions, having beaten Pachuca 3-0 in December 2024.
Essentially, the tournament is the successor to the old Club World Cup, and the winners are entitled to receive the FIFA Champions Badge on their shirt, as previous Club World Cup winners Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City have done in recent seasons.