PSG Juggernaut One Win Away From A Historic Fifth Title This Season

The big question entering the FIFA Club World Cup final is whether any team can defeat Paris Saint-Germain when so much is on the line.

The French super powerhouse has taken teams part since winning the UEFA Champions League crown on May 24, outscoring its foes by an absurd 21-1 margin.

It will be Chelsea’s charge to find a way to overcome what has been club soccer’s juggernaut in the FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

PSG will try to complete its quest for a rare quintuple – five championships in a year. The four already in the trophy case includes four domestic trophies – French Ligue 1, Couple de France and French Super Cup – and internationally, the UEFA Champions League, with a possible fifth in the Club World Cup.

To truly appreciate what Les Parisiens has accomplished, it must be noted that it takes some teams decades to accrue that many titles and honors.

That’s how fabulous the French team has been.

“This is the last game in the season we’ve been feeling good,” PSG head coach Luis Enrique said at a press conference on Friday. “We’ve had a very good year, and for us, it’s very important to finish this historic season in the best possible way. It’s very important for us, for the club and for our fans.”

“We have been absolutely incredible. … But if I were to analyze our entire season, I would say it was an extraordinary season.”

A rare opportunity

PSG captain and center back Marquinhos won’t take anything for granted. He realized it was a rare opportunity to take home the Club World Cup trophy to Paris.

“This is a tournament that is held every four years only, and we have this opportunity to be here in the final and to compete for the title,” he said. “Since our first day here, the coach has been mentioning that. The coach said this was an opportunity, a really major opportunity, a golden opportunity for us, because we don’t know what things will look like in four years. We don’t know if players will have another opportunity to play in this tournament. So, since our first day here, we’ve had it in our minds.

“This has been a fun tournament to play, playing against opponents that we’re not used to playing. It’s different from the Champions League. … We really want to go grab this title. This would make it an absolutely perfect season, which would be very hard to replicate.”

Since rolling past Inter Milan, 5-0 in the UEFA final on May 31, PSG has outscored its opposition by an absurd 21-1 margin in its last seven matches.

Almost perfect

The lone loss was a 1-0 defeat to Botafogo, which defended magnificently, in the second group stage match on June 19. Igor Jesus has the distinction of being only player to solve the backline and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The other five CWC contests have been by a shutout.

Les Rouge-et-Bleu started its onslaught with a 4-0 trouncing of Atletico in its tournament opener before coming back down to earth in a 1-0 loss to Botafogo. The Paris team then reeled off four consecutive clean sheets, including a 4-0 rout of Inter Miami CF in the Round of 16 and a 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid in the July 9 semifinals.

Asked if he thought whether PSG are currently the best team in the world, Real head coach Xabi Alonso replied: “I’d say yes. They’ve been together for years and play at an incredibly high level. They work as a team and they’re tough to play against. That’s the benchmark for us now.”

And for just about everyone else.

When the French side is playing with all cylinders running and its press in high gear, it can score goals in bunches.

For example, PSG scored three goals in the final nine minutes of the opening half against Inter Miami and Lionel Messi, turning a close game into a romp on June 29. On Wednesday, July 9, the squad struck twice in the opening nine minutes while adding a third in the 24th minute against one of the top teams in the world.

No superstars on this team

PSG might not necessarily have a superstar in the caliber of Kylian Mbappe or Neymar, or Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in their prime. But the team has 11 superb players in its Starting XI that compete well together. And the team’s reserves are deep, as well.

When a reporter at Friday’s press conference brought up the fact, Enrique responded: “Thank you. Bravo. You ended saying the best thing you could say, 11 stars. That’s football. We don’t want just one main player. We want 11 stars. And I would say 13-15, stars even. That’s what we need in our sport. That’s our commitment, and the commitment we got from the managers and the president and myself.”

Eleven players have found the net in this competition, with Spanish midfielder Fabian Ruiz, who scored twice against Real Madrid, leading the way with three goals.

“We have always said that the collective work by the players is what’s helping us,” Ruiz said. “We are a great group, a young group that is working well.”

Friend and foe think so.

Does anyone want to play PSG?

Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel said on DAZN, the streaming service that has broadcast every CWC match, said that PSG was the one team every side wanted to avoid.

“I don’t think anybody wants to play PSG right now,” he said. “Every team in the world right now is looking at them asking ‘how can we play like this?’ Everything they did was an absolute masterclass.”

Chelsea, of course, hopes to have something to say about whether PSG will take a victory lap around MetLife.

The Blues captured the UEFA Conference League crown, defeating Real Betis, 4-1. They also finished fourth in the Premier League to book spot in the Champions League for the 2025-26 campaign.

Chelsea wants to defy the experts

Captain Reece James felt his team could defy the odds and prognostications.

“This game is a super high-level game,” he said. “They are one of the hottest teams in the world at the moment. They are down as strong favorites. But I have been in finals where I have played for the favorites and not come out on top. So, this doesn’t mean much to me … that everyone is ‘bigging up’ our opposition.

“PSG have beaten all the English teams. They have an amazing team, but we have an amazing team and have surprised a lot of people. We’ve come a long way on our journey from where we started. We are preparing right and going there to win.

“I believe we will go toe-to-toe. Stats, data, favorites and not favorites don’t mean anything to our team.”

A chess match on Sunday?

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca said that Sunday’s affair would be similar to a chess match.

“I love to play chess and watch chess,” he said. “I feel football is like a game of chess and when the rival makes a move, you have to counteract it and I think this will be like a chess game. They are a top team in Europe and the world, maybe the best in the world, but every game is different, and we will try to do a good game.

“PSG is best team in world and they have showed that in this tournament, showed it in France and in the Champions League. Of course it’ll be a difficult game for us, but we are preparing ourselves in the best way possible.”

Considering what PSG has done to its opposition in the FIFA Club World Cup, best just might not be good enough on Sunday.