Chelsea v PSG – Club World Cup ultimate reside: Underdog Blues attempt to make historical past in opposition to European champions

Tens of thousands of police officers will be deployed in France on Sunday night as Paris Saint-Germain takes on Chelsea in the Club World Cup final thousands of miles away in the United States.

French officials have warned that no fan misbehavior will be tolerated after violence in the country marred celebrations of PSG winning its first Champions League trophy in Germany.

“No gatherings will be tolerated on the Champs-Elysées,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told RMC media. “A total of 11,500 police and gendarmes will be mobilized in Paris on Sunday, and 53,000 throughout France.”

French police are faced with a double security challenge, with PSG’s match at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey followed on July 14 by France’s Bastille Day celebrations.

Here is how the Club World Cup prize money breaks down:

🏆 Total prize pool

💸 Participation payments (guaranteed)

Europe: £10.12m–£30.17m

South America: £12.02m

North/Central America: £7.55m

Asia: £7.55m

Africa: £7.55m

Oceania: £2.83m

💰 Performance bonuses (added to participation)

Group win: £1.58m

Group draw: £0.79m

Round of 16 exit: £5.93m

Quarter-finalists: £10.37m

Semi-finalists: £16.59m

Runners-up: £23.7m

Champions: £31.6m

🏅 Maximum potential earnings

Performance-only total: £69.22m

Total including top Euro participation: £98.75m

As Marc Cucurella engaged in one of his last press duties of what has felt like an interminable season, the focus of a table of journalists at a New York hotel, the left-back’s minute tally for the campaign sat at 4,912 for club and country.

He’ll expect to hit the 5,000 mark today – a figure only the most indispensable can achieve.

“I feel very good to be fair,” he insists, showing the spirit he’ll need against the challenge of the electrifying PSG starlet Desire Doue. But as he stares down the prospect of ending a year of almost constant football as a world champion, Cucurella can only reflect on the imperative adjustment in mentality that brought him to this point, now one of the most relied-upon, revered starters in the Chelsea team.

Read Will Castle’s interview with the Chelsea full back:

President Donald Trump will attend the FIFA Club World Cup final on Sunday afternoon (July 13), on the first anniversary of the assassination attempt he survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, while campaigning in the 2024 election.

The president had no specific public plans to observe the date, though he did speak about it during a taped Fox News Channel interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, which aired on her Saturday night show, My View.

“Well, it was unforgettable,” Trump told his daughter-in-law in their Saturday night interview. “I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I got whacked. There’s no question about that. And fortunately, I got down quickly. People were screaming, and I got down quickly, fortunately, because I think they shot eight bullets.”

Enzo Fernandez has not held back when revealing the harsh reality of what it’s like to play in the extreme heat that’s been experienced at the Club World Cup, with temperatures on the East Coast reaching as high as 34C.

“Honestly, the heat is incredible,” Fernandez said. “The other day I got a bit dizzy during a play. I had to lie down on the ground because I was really dizzy.

“Playing in this temperature is very dangerous, it’s very dangerous – moreover, for the spectacle, for the people who come to enjoy the stadium, for the people who watch it at home. The game, the speed of the game is not the same, everything becomes very slow.

“Let’s hope that next year they change the schedule, at least so that it remains a beautiful and attractive football spectacle, right?”

And here’s Will on how PSG demolished a helpless Real Madrid

Is it too soon to call this “vintage PSG”? This iteration of the Parisian giants has only really begun to come into effect over the last eight months. But after watching the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Inter Milan fall to their brilliance in Europe, this is becoming the norm for Paris Saint-Germain. They’ve now demonstrated their ability as a giant-killer on the global stage.

The mighty Real Madrid, one of the Club World Cup’s biggest draws to the American audience, were their latest victims.

To say that Xabi Alonso has been given a reality check in the Real hot seat might be a bit of a stretch. The gulf between the side he’s inherited and the footballing powerhouse sculpted by Luis Enrique was apparent before a ball was kicked.

But if the former midfield maestro has his own hopes of “modernising” at the Santiago Bernabeu, he has a long way to go before the Galacticos can scratch the surface of what has been created in Paris.

How did Chelsea make it through to the final? Check out Will Castle’s report from their semi-final triumph over Fluminense:

Against a legend of old, Chelsea have a new Brazilian to deify. They are potentially 90 minutes away from becoming world champions, and they have a mid-tournament acquisition to thank.

Fluminense’s journey in the Club World Cup has been nothing short of remarkable. Running on financial fumes, they’ve slayed European giants and Saudi money machines. Thiago Silva, a beloved former Chelsea figure now spending his final footballing days captaining his boyhood club, has been lauded as the heart and soul of their unexpected success. But at the feet of fellow local boy Joao Pedro, Fluminense’s dream of conquering the globe came crashing down.

Joao Pedro, justifying his £60m price tag in his first start, may well be the missing piece to Enzo Maresca’s puzzle. Two stunning goals from the Brazilian propelled the Blues to the final, proving that the much-tried “versatile striker” playstyle – the one the likes of Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku have struggled to master – may in fact have a place in the Italian tactician’s system.

Tournament football can be cruel. It can also act as the making of managers. Enzo Maresca, like Thomas Tuchel before him, will be hoping the latter rings true as his side close in on their date with destiny.

Chelsea have clawed their way to within 90 minutes of becoming, by definition, world champions. Barring a six-minute blip against Flamengo, sparking a loss that proved incredibly beneficial for the Blues’ wider campaign, they have bossed the inaugural Club World Cup to set up a final showdown with the imperious Paris Saint-Germain.

Maresca’s tactical philosophy is slowly beginning to take shape in a way fans can get behind. Suddenly, “Maresca ball” doesn’t feel like such a chore to watch.

Read Will Castle’s full preview from New York:

Enzo Maresca has all but confirmed Noni Madueke’s imminent switch Arsenal after revealing that the winger has left the Chelsea camp ahead of the Club World Cup final.

Madueke looks set to become the latest player to swap blue for red in London after a £48.5m fee was agreed between the two clubs, with Chelsea giving him permission to undergo a medical.

The 23-year-old will subsequently play no part in Chelsea’s bid to become world champions as they take on Paris Saint-Germain in New Jersey on Sunday.

“Noni is in contact with the new club,” he told a press conference. “I guess he is going to be (announced) in the next hours.”

So, how did we get here?

QUARTER-FINALS

Friday 4 July

Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea

Fluminense 2-1 Al-Hilal

Saturday 5 July

PSG 2-0 Bayern Munich

Real Madrid 3-2 Borussia Dortmund

SEMI-FINALS

Tuesday 8 July

Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea

Wednesday 9 July

PSG 4-0 Real Madrid

Sunday 13 July

Chelsea vs PSG (East Rutherford) – 8pm BST