East Rutherford: Cole Palmer scored two goals and made another while Chelsea amazed Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final on Sunday, defeating the European champions 3-0 before lifting the trophy alongside US President Donald Trump.
PSG was the favorites after having come to the United States fresh to win the Champions League and to have destroyed Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-finals.
But after being three goals in advance at the start of the semi-final, this time, the roles were reversed while PSG found himself 3-0 by the break.
Palmer opened the scoring halfway to the first half and hit again to make two on half an hour, before taking advantage of the passive defense to install Joao Pedro for 43 minutes.
A bad day for PSG was summarized when Joao Neves was shown red after a Var review four minutes from the end to pull Marc Cucurella by the hair from the ball.
“Being world champion of the club cup is something we are proud of. We are very happy, especially against a PSG team that I consider the best in the world with one of the best managers in the world,” said Chelsea coach, Enzo Maresca, before welcoming Palmer, winner of the match.
“These are the games where we expect Cole to appear because it is a big game, a big moment, and again, he showed how good he was.”
Before Chelsea could lift the trophy, the tensions spread full time with players in front of the height and the Paris coach, Luis Enrique, raising his arm on Joao Pedro’s neck.
“There was a lot of push and push. It was a situation that should obviously had to be avoided, but my intention was clearly fair to try to separate the players,” said Luis Enrique.
The scoring was a little could have predicted when Chelsea capped what was a long but memorable season – they are the first winners of the club World Cup of 32 teams who also won the UEFA conference league and finished fourth in the Premier League.
They will also remove around $ 125 million at a price, which means that the prospect of a radically reduced summer break before returning for next season is worth it.
For PSG, during this time, the financial awards are similar, but there will be a real disappointment for not having added this title to its triumph of the Champions League and the French League and the Cup.
Nevertheless, the conquest of Europe has always been the main objective of this season for the Luis Enrique team, who now has exactly a month to digest this and take a vacation before returning to the action in UEFA Super Cup against Tottenham Hotspur.
Trump present
There was a real sense of opportunity at the Metlife stadium, with the context of Manhattan’s horizon and with Trump with First Lady Melania Trump in a crowd of 81,118.
For the second time in six weeks, PSG found itself involved in a final which quickly turned into a unilateral case.
The club won a 5-0 historic victory against Inter Milan in the Champions League final, but here they were torn by Chelsea.
The opening goal occurred in the 22nd minute while Malo Gusto took over on Nuno Mendes on the right before seeing his shot blocked by Lucas Beraldo. The ball returned to Gusto and he set up Palmer to finish in the lower corner to the left.
Palmer was the face of Chelsea on the display panels in the United States during the tournament and he was up to his star status by marking again in half an hour.
Released to the right with the back left PSG Mendes out of position, Palmer advanced towards the box before caressing a low shot in the same corner.
Joao Pedro played a role in building this goal and the Brazilian, signed during the Brighton tournament, then obtained his name on the match sheet to do it 3-0.
The scorer of the two goals against Fluminense in the semi-finals, he cut a blow in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma after being supplied by Palmer.
PSG had conceded only one goal in their previous eight games and they never really seemed to produce a return, even if Neves was heading just at first half.
The replacement Liam Delap almost obtained a fourth for Chelsea halfway from the second half, before Neves was shown in red to end a bad day for PSG.
