Club World Cup: PSG win against Real Madrid – the new best team in the world

A little over an hour had passed when Kylian Mbappé finally made an appearance. The French striker had dominated the pre-match coverage of the second semi-final of the Club World Cup, having switched from one participant (Paris Saint-Germain) to another (Real Madrid) in the New Jersey heat a year ago under turbulent circumstances.

It took more than an hour before Mbappé first appeared near the opponent's goal. The move wasn't dangerous. After a through ball, he couldn't control the ball. PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was able to pick up the ball without having to throw himself into the challenge with anything like the reckless effort he had in the quarterfinals against FC Bayern, when he broke Jamal Musiala's fibula – without any discernible intention. Donnarumma simply dropped onto the ball and lay prone on the turf for a few seconds. Mbappé looked sadly at the ground.

Real Madrid's attacker had been the big topic of conversation before the first reunion with PSG, which took place on the football field, not in court over allegedly outstanding wages. But when the match began in New Jersey, Mbappé was no longer a factor. He blended in with the image presented by his club. Real Madrid, the biggest brand in international football, the club with the most fans at the Club World Cup, was absent from the most high-profile match of the tournament so far and was sent home with a 4-0 defeat.

The team was merely a backdrop in a match in which Paris, crowned Champions League winners just over a month ago, showed that they are not just the best team in Europe right now – but the best in the world. Coach Luis Enrique's team can officially secure this status in Sunday's Club World Cup final (9 p.m., DAZN) against Chelsea, again in New Jersey. And after their performance against Real, it takes a lot of imagination to imagine Paris leaving the USA without the opulent gold trophy, which is currently on display at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

The game was decided before the crowd had even finished the first hot dog of the game. In the sixth minute, Fabián Ruiz scored the long-awaited 1-0. Two minutes later, Ousmane Dembélé made it 2-0 after Real Madrid's German defender Antoni Rüdiger had kicked the most beautiful ball in New Jersey. In the 24th minute, Fabián Ruiz scored again. 3-0 – Game Over.

When new Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, freshly arrived from Bayer Leverkusen, gathered his players around him during the drinks break halfway through, he spoke to them with such enthusiasm, as if he believed the team could still turn around the three-goal deficit. But the remaining time was all about avoiding an even greater humiliation.

The fact that PSG didn't win by five, six, or seven goals was less due to the resilience of Alonso's team than to the fact that both teams made substitutions in the second half. Paris could afford to rest players like Dembelé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and Fabián Ruiz for the final against Chelsea.

Nevertheless, the team still managed to conjure up the perfect image of their dominance on the pitch. With the score at 4-0 just before the final whistle, Bradley Barcola and goal-scorer Gonçalo Ramos conjured up magic as if they were on a football pitch in the outskirts of Paris, not in Real Madrid's penalty area in a World Cup semifinal.

The 90 minutes in New Jersey felt like a power shift at the top of international football. PSG had just clinched the Champions League crown, to which Real Madrid had a natural claim. However, the two clubs hadn't met on the way to the Paris triumph. The French capital club's class had yet to be proven in a head-to-head match. PSG delivered that impressively in New Jersey.

Helpless on the sidelines: Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso during the defeat against PSG.

Source: IMAGO/Sportsphoto

When Real Madrid coach Alonso sat before the press after the match, he spoke loudly and clearly. He didn't look like a defeated man. He can't afford to in his new job. He bravely stated that his team had made progress at the Club World Cup, and that he was certain that the tournament was the starting point for positive development. In Madrid, however, where the pressure on the protagonists is greater than anywhere else in world football, the crushing defeat against the game's new rulers will likely be interpreted as a complete failure. As Xabi Alonso's first blemish.

The coach hasn't had a good experience with semifinals recently. On April 1, he and double-winner Leverkusen lost to third-division Arminia Bielefeld in the semifinals of the DFB-Pokal. A 4-0 defeat at Real Madrid is a similarly humiliating experience. Regardless of the fact that the Club World Cup is a competition whose significance many clubs have yet to grasp.

"That was the last game of the 2024/2025 season," Alonso repeatedly said about the match against PSG. He wanted to convey: Now my work really begins. In the New Jersey heat, he was reminded of how far the gap is to the currently best team in the world—which may even officially call itself that after Sunday's Club World Cup final.