The boy from Wythenshawe who had sat on top of the Rockefeller on Friday took Chelsea to the top of the world on Sunday, that shiver celebration shown to everyone. It was 90F (32C) in New Jersey, humid too, but oh, this was cold, all right.
Two wonderful, almost identical strikes, executed with an effortless ease, and a lovely soft-shoed assist from Cole Palmer led Chelsea to the expanded Club World Cup. That Tiffany trophy, a great, big gold coin, had their name engraved into it alongside Gianni Infantino’s, the billion-dollar team that won the billion-dollar competition.
It was handed to them by Donald Trump, who was booed when he appeared and hung about in the picture for a bit before Chelsea’s players pushed in front of him on the podium. Reece James lifted it, fireworks went off and Blue is the Colour went round. They had done it.
Paris Saint-Germain had seemed peerless, a side that shifted the paradigm, but the European champions could not beat Robert Sánchez at one end – the goalkeeper one of many outstanding performers – and were picked off at the other, victims of a perfect plan.
This hadn’t been what PSG, or anyone, expected and at the final whistle they lost the plot, confrontations sparked on the pitch. Somewhere in the crowd, the coach Luis Enrique seemed to grab at João Pedro’s throat just as João Neves had grabbed at Marc Cucurella’s hair in the dying minutes of the match, their dreadful afternoon wrapped up with a red card.
For Chelsea, it could not have gone any better, and almost from the start. Ultimately, they had won this inside 30 minutes, which is what their opponents were supposed to do.
“We know that they begin games very fast, very strong,” Cucurella had said but while Ousmane Dembélé almost caught Sánchez 95 seconds in, it was Chelsea who did so. The first chance was theirs inside 10 minutes and it was so close that some in this stadium celebrated, João Pedro teeing up Palmer for a shot that bent just past the post. That, it turned out was just a sighter; next time, the MetLife could let go for real.
Chelsea’s plan was clear: quick into the challenge, quicker to send the ball into the space behind PSG, starting with Sánchez directly from his own area. PSG might have led early when Désiré Doué cut back to Kvaratskhelia instead of taking the shot himself before seeing another effort stopped by a superb low save from Sánchez.
It was also true that they took a degree of control in that phase and beyond, possession eventually up near 70% but Chelsea had anticipated that and the advantage was quickly theirs, 1-0 up on 22 minutes.
Sánchez’s diagonal went right where Nuno Mendes, buffeted, didn’t judge the leap well. Suddenly, Malo Gusto was away, space opening on the wing before him and he cut into the area, ready to shoot. Lucas Beraldo blocked the first effort but Gusto retrieved the ball and laid into the path of Palmer who opened up his body and curled it into the bottom of the net. Off he went, holding himself.
The shot with which he made it 2-0 eight minutes later was almost identical. Coming in from the right, Palmer saw Gusto fly up outside him. So, and this was the key, did the PSG defence. A slight pause, a little shuffle of the hips was enough to clear Beraldo and Marquinhos from his path and Palmer put the ball in the same square of the net. In half an hour, he had taken almost the same shot three times. Two had gone in, the other looked like it had, the title within touching distance already.
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Not that Palmer was finished. Just before half-time, he carried the ball from near halfway and slipped the ball through. The pass was smooth, so was the finish from João Pedro, dinked over Gigi Donnarumma as if he was playing on the beach, which 10 days ago he was.
Chelsea had completed only 126 passes at that point, but that was at least partly by clinical design, producing three shots clearly constructed and calmly executed, giving them a lead that wasn’t for overturning. Which isn’t to say PSG didn’t try after a 24-minute half-time. Sánchez almost immediately had to get to the feet of Fabián Ruiz and then scramble away Kvaratskhelia’s shot before making an excellent close-range stop from Dembélé.
Chelsea got deeper and were not always in a hurry to get the ball back. When they did, they tried to keep it, each pass greeted with olés, the match managed expertly. Sánchez dived to save Vitinha’s dipping effort but only rarely did Chelsea feel under the kind of pressure that would prise the trophy from their hands.
In fact, if anyone was going to score again, it was Liam Delap, who twice went close, as down the on the bench the T-shirts were handed out. World champions 2025, they said.
