The French team trashed Inter Milan 5-0 a week and a half ago in the Champions League final, and are giving few indications of slowing down.
Though critics have pooh-poohed the Club World Cup as nearly a friendly affair, that’s not the way it’s been competed. It’s being played as seriously as any competition by the players.
PSG experienced a dip against Brazilian club Botafogo, but have defeated both Atletico and Real Madrid 4-0 in the United States competition, as well as German league winners Bayern Munich 2-0, even with having nine men left on the field at the end.
Teams simply cannot deal with their speed, passing and pressing – and they keep tearing apart any team that gets in their path. They were 3-0 up inside 24 minutes, courtesy of a Fabian Ruiz brace and Ousmane Dembele goal, before Goncalo Ramos scored with three minutes remaining.
“Luis Enrique has created a monster,” opined Dazn commentator Andros Townsend. And old Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale added: “They look like a team who are going to be around for a long time.”.
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 Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi in the last 16 and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe in Wednesday’s one-sided last-four match. After Mbappe, PSG’s all-time leading scorer, moved last summer to Madrid upon the expiration of his contract, Enrique constructed a new-look front line.
Dembele, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are dynamite. Occasionally, Bradley Barcola is also part of it to wreak havoc. Their three in midfield – Portugal pair Joao Neves and Vitinha, and two-goal Spaniard Ruiz – dominate games.
Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel told Dazn at half-time: “When the three in the middle dominate play like that, nobody can beat them. It’s been a masterclass.”
Former Newcastle striker Callum Wilson was equally impressed: “Some of that PSG football was like playing Fifa. Unreal.”
And that is without even speaking of non-stop up-and-down attacking full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, who are also a big part of PSG’s style of play.
And having already won the French Cup, Ligue 1 and Champions League, they are now only one match away from a fourth of 2025’s big trophies. Add in the minor Trophee des Champions, and it could be a sweep of five.
Chelsea will find it tough to hold them on Sunday. Since the Coupe de France final, PSG have won their past five knockout round games by a total of 18-0.
Luis Enrique can now be classed as one of the top managers in global football after winning Trebles with Barcelona and PSG.
“He set the bar,” Welshman Bale stated. “They are at the forefront of a new generation. They’ve put the bar high, and all of football is going to be trying to emulate them and trying to prevent them.”
Sunday will be their 65th game since the beginning of the 2024-25 season. A month on from that match, they play Tottenham in the UEFA Super Cup to begin 2025-26.
