In one of the most memorable upsets in recent club football history, Chelsea outclassed Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final of the inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, July 13.
With Cole Palmer delivering a breathtaking performance, scoring twice and assisting once, the Blues etched their name in history as the tournament’s first-ever champions.
PSG, the Champions League winners and heavy favorites going into the final, looked shell-shocked by halftime, trailing 3-0 after a ruthless Chelsea counterattack led by Palmer and João Pedro.
Attended by a sellout crowd of over 81,000 — including former U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump — the match delivered drama, spectacle, and a major power shift on the world stage.
Palmer’s First-Half Heroics
The match began with both teams testing each other cautiously, but Chelsea quickly took the initiative. Palmer, already one of the breakout stars of the season, nearly gave Chelsea the lead inside 10 minutes.
Moments later, PSG squandered a golden chance when Désiré Doué chose to pass rather than shoot, allowing Marc Cucurella to intervene.
The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute. Malo Gusto drove forward down the right flank, evading Nuno Mendes, and after his initial effort was blocked by Lucas Beraldo, the rebound fell kindly for Palmer. The 22-year-old made no mistake, placing a low shot into the bottom-left corner past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Chelsea doubled their lead just eight minutes later. Palmer, again exploiting space behind the PSG backline, was released on the right wing and calmly slotted a second goal into the same corner. PSG looked uncharacteristically disjointed, unable to handle Chelsea’s pace and positional awareness.
By the 43rd minute, Chelsea struck again. Palmer capitalized on passive defending, threading a smart pass to João Pedro, who clipped the ball past Donnarumma to make it 3-0. The Brazilian, signed mid-tournament from Brighton, was again decisive following his semi-final heroics against Fluminense.
PSG Collapse on Big Stage
For Paris Saint-Germain, it was an evening of frustration and disbelief. This was the same team that dismantled Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final and cruised past Real Madrid 4-0 in the Club World Cup semi-finals. But against Chelsea, they were unrecognizable — slow to react, porous at the back, and blunt in attack.
João Neves came close to pulling one back in stoppage time of the first half with a header that grazed the post, but it was one of the few genuine chances PSG created all game. Chelsea, by contrast, continued to press intelligently and nearly grabbed a fourth through substitute Liam Delap in the second half.
The night got worse for PSG in the 86th minute when João Neves was shown a straight red card following a VAR review. He was caught yanking Marc Cucurella’s hair in an off-the-ball incident — a moment of petulance that summed up PSG’s unraveling.
A Historic Night for Chelsea
For Chelsea, this result capped an extraordinary season. Having already lifted the UEFA Conference League and finished fourth in the Premier League, the Club World Cup triumph marked their third major trophy of the year.
More importantly, it reestablished the West London side as a force on the global stage after years of rebuilding. Cole Palmer, whose face adorned billboards across the United States during the tournament, lived up to the hype and then some.
His maturity, technical finesse, and composure under pressure were instrumental in dismantling a star-studded PSG lineup. With two goals and one assist in the final alone, Palmer is now firmly a contender for future Ballon d’Or consideration.
Chelsea will pocket an estimated $125 million in prize money for their efforts, a financial boost that will help fund further reinforcements for next season. More pressing, however, will be the need to navigate a truncated summer break with preseason fixtures just weeks away.
This article was created using automation technology and was thoroughly edited and fact-checked by one of our editorial staff members
