Paris St-Germain look like a team building a dynasty after Luis Enrique’s side dismantled yet another European giant – this time Real Madrid 4-0 – to reach the Club World Cup final.
The French side bashed Inter Milan 5-0 five and a half weeks ago in the Champions League final – and they are showing few signs of letting up.
While critics have dismissed the Club World Cup as almost like a friendly tournament, that is not how it has been played. It is being taken as seriously as any competition by the players.
PSG had a blip against Brazilian side Botafogo, but have beaten both Atletico and Real Madrid 4-0 in the United States tournament, plus German champions Bayern Munich 2-0 despite ending the game with nine men.
Teams just cannot cope with their pace, passing and pressing – and they continue to tear apart any team in their way.
They led 3-0 within 24 minutes, thanks to a Fabian Ruiz double and Ousmane Dembele strike, before Goncalo Ramos netted with three minutes left.
Next up are Chelsea in Sunday’s final in New Jersey.
“Luis Enrique has created a monster,” said Dazn pundit Andros Townsend.
And former Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale added: “They look like a team that are going to be around for a long time.
“They are very young, relentless and want to embarrass teams.”
How have they turned it around?
In the space of a year, PSG have become a team many neutrals actively willed to lose in the Champions League – to the best team in the world to watch.
Fittingly, two of the figureheads of the ‘old PSG’ – who were more about egos than a team – were both on the wrong side of 4-0 hammerings in the US.
It was Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami in the last 16 and Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid in Wednesday’s one-sided last-four tie.
Since Mbappe, PSG’s all-time top scorer, left last summer for Madrid when his contract expired, Enrique has built a new-look frontline.
Dembele, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are electric. Sometimes Bradley Barcola is in there to cause mayhem too.
Their midfield three – Portugal duo Joao Neves and Vitinha, and two-goal Spaniard Ruiz – control games.
Ex-Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel said on Dazn at half-time: “When the three in the middle dictate the play like that, no-one can stop them. It has been a masterclass.”
Former Newcastle striker Callum Wilson added: “Some of that football from PSG was like watching Fifa. Incredible.”
And that is without mentioning non-stop up-and-down attacking full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, who are also a big part of how PSG play.
And having won the French Cup, Ligue 1 and Champions League, they are now just one game away from a fourth major trophy of 2025. Throw in the lesser Trophee des Champions, and it could be a clean sweep of five.
Chelsea will have their work cut out to stop them on Sunday. Dating back to the Coupe de France final, PSG have won their last five knockout round matches by a combined score of 18-0.
Luis Enrique must now be considered one of the elite managers in world football, having won Trebles with Barcelona and PSG.
“He has set the standard,” said Welshman Bale. “They are leading a new era.
“They have set a very high bar and everyone in football will be trying to copy them and trying to stop them.”
The only concern for PSG could be fatigue.
Sunday will be their 65th match since the start of the 2024-25 campaign. Exactly a month after that game they face Tottenham in the Uefa Super Cup to start 2025-26.
‘Unbelievable numbers’ as Dembele delights again
Dembele has certainly stepped out of Mbappe’s shadow this season.
The 28-year-old Frenchman has scored 35 goals and created 16 assists in 52 games in 2024-25, including this competition.
Until now, Dembele’s best goalscoring season was 14 for Barcelona.
The speedster is now the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or – something that would have seemed impossible a year or two ago.
“It’s the first match in this tournament that we can use [start] Ousmane and I think he has been our best player this season,” said Luis Enrique.
“He deserves to win everything because he gives his all to the club and has done all season.”
Former England forward Wilson, 33, added: “Unbelievable numbers from Dembele.
“If he wins the Club World Cup after winning the Treble, surely he has to win the Ballon d’Or?”
And it is not just those numbers that impress.
“It all starts from the work-rate of Dembele – he forces players into mistakes,” said Townsend at half-time, while summarising PSG’s impressive performance.
Alonso will ‘take lessons’ from defeat
Unlike Luis Enrique, Xabi Alonso is still getting to know his Real Madrid team.
The Spaniard took over at the end of the La Liga season when Carlo Ancelotti left for Brazil – and still has plenty of work to do on the evidence of this game.
Alonso has been experimenting with formations, trying four and five-man backlines. England right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold missed this encounter through injury, so midfielder Federico Valverde played in that position instead.
And it did not help that some of their attacking players did not work hard enough.
“Vinicius Jr and Mbappe just haven’t been tracking back down the sides and that is a big problem in this formation,” said Townsend.
“[Left-back] Fran Garcia is not happy, he has had absolutely no help down that left-hand side.”
Alonso admitted: “They have been building for two years and we are just starting so we will take time. We will have to learn from today, but the feeling at the moment is not the best.
“We need a proper break. This is not the beginning of next year, this is just the end of this season. After just three weeks here I think we can take positives. We will take lessons from today.”
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