Fabian Ruiz scored twice as European champions Paris Saint-Germain turned on the style in their reunion with Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday, thrashing Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup to set up a final showdown with Chelsea.

Ruiz and Ousmane Dembele scored inside the opening nine minutes to stun Real and silence the majority of the 77,542 crowd who were wearing white at the MetLife Stadium outside New York.

The Spanish midfielder added another before half-time and Goncalo Ramos got a late fourth as Luis Enrique’s side moved one game away from glory at FIFA’s new tournament.

Victory against Chelsea on Sunday would complete a campaign of unparalleled success for the Parisians, who won the French title and then the first UEFA Champions League in their history in May.

“We are in a special season, a special moment, and we deserved to win,” Luis Enrique told broadcaster DAZN before looking ahead to the final.

“We are going to try, one more step against a good team like Chelsea. They did great, they performed the whole competition and now it is time for us to prepare for that… we want to make history in our club, and then take some holidays.”

After blowing away Inter Milan 5-0, the biggest victory in European Cup final history, PSG began their Club World Cup bid by putting four past Atletico Madrid and the ease with which they disposed of Real here was striking.

PSG’s fluidity contrasted starkly with Madrid, who are a work in progress under new coach Xabi Alonso. Meanwhile Mbappe struggled to make any impact on his first start at the tournament and in his first game against PSG since leaving the French club a year ago.

“We were not good enough today,” said Alonso. “We are not the first ones to lose to them but we have a lot of different things to improve.”

The France captain was hoping for a different outcome against the team for whom he scored a club record 256 goals, and the defeat is a real blow to Real as they hoped to win the first 32-team Club World Cup to add to their record tally of 15 European Cups.

But PSG have improved without Mbappe and are now such a well-oiled machine that they appear unstoppable — it would be a big surprise if they failed to beat Chelsea.

Luis Enrique was without imposing centre-back Willian Pacho due to suspension following his sending-off against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, but that did not matter.

Lucas Beraldo slotted into the defence with ease, and the rest of PSG’s first-choice line-up was there.

Source: France 24

Manchester City turned on the style to seal top spot in Group G at the Club World Cup with an emphatic 5-2 win over Juventus on Thursday.

The third straight victory for Pep Guardiola’s side increases the chances of City avoiding a meeting with Real Madrid in the last 16 — a fate that may now await Juventus.

City and Juve will not know their opponent until the final pair of games in Group H conclude later on Friday.

A positive day for City saw 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri make his first start since rupturing his ACL in September and Guardiola’s side, featuring several new faces, look significantly improved on the team which struggled to finish 13 points behind Premier League champions Liverpool last season.

City were on top from the outset with a Bernardo Silva header forcing Juve keeper Michele Di Gregorio to save with his feet in the fifth minute.

Four minutes later, Guardiola’s new-look side had the lead when after a characteristic, patient build-up, Rayan Ait-Nouri split the Juve defence with a superb pass which Jeremy Doku collected and dispatched into the far corner.

Juve were gifted an equaliser when City’s Brazilian keeper Ederson’s pass out was intercepted by Teun Koopmeiners who marched into the box and confidently fired home.

Juve returned the gift though in the 26th minute when French defender Pierre Kalulu, under no pressure, turned a low cross from Matheus Nunes into his own net.

A short but intense downpour just before half-time cooled the stadium down and Guardiola introduced his prolific Norwegian striker Erling Haaland at the break and it took just seven minutes for him to find the scoresheet.

Tijjani Reijnders fed Matheus Nunes whose low cross found an unmarked Haaland in the middle and while it wasn’t the cleanest of finishes from close range, the striker celebrated his 300th career goal.

Rodri left the field in the 66th minute to applause as Ilkay Gundogan took over his role in the centre of midfield but City continued to over-run the Turin side.

Haaland latched on to a long ball from Ederson and looked for fellow sub Phil Foden in the middle but put his cross beyond the England man only for Savinho to recover it and set-up Foden for a simple conversion.

Savinho then made made it 5-1 when after a Haaland shot was saved by De Gregorio’s feet, the Brazilian met the loose ball with a thundering drive which flew in off the underside of the bar.

Juventus had created little but restored a little pride when Kenan Yildiz produced a lovely touch and clever pass to set Dusan Vlahovic free and the Serbian beat Ederson from the edge of the box.

Source:  AFP

Chelsea kicked off their Fifa Club World Cup campaign against Los Angeles FC to tens of thousands of empty seats in Atlanta.

The game started at 3pm local time on a working Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The attendance for Chelsea’s 2-0 win was announced as 22,137, in a ground which can hold 71,000 spectators – though the entire top tier was closed.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, said: “I think the environment was a bit strange, the stadium was almost empty, not full.

“We are professional and we have to adapt to the situation, to the environment. You have to adapt when you play with a full stadium. You have to adapt when the stadium is not full but it doesn’t matter.”

Sources had told the BBC that Fifa was expecting a crowd of about 26,000.

A small middle tier seemed to be mostly full, but a larger bottom tier was more than half empty.

The cheapest ticket was about £37 immediately before kick-off, although seats were significantly more expensive in the build up. During the game tickets were still on sale online for £26 – with many available in nearly every section.

Los Angeles is more than 2,000 miles away from Atlanta, across the southern United States.

LAFC were late replacements for disqualified Leon in the tournament and their 150 ultras dominated the atmosphere – despite Chelsea having many more fans.

The Blues supporters mainly got animated for the goals, Liam Delap’s introduction for his debut and booing major decisions.

The newly expanded Club World Cup is being treated as a dress rehearsal for the international World Cup next summer, which will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

The CWC is just being played in the US.

Source: BBC

England slumped to a 3-1 home friendly defeat by Senegal on Tuesday to ramp up the scrutiny on boss Thomas Tuchel one year out from the World Cup.

Goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheikh Sabaly inflicted England’s first ever defeat against African opposition at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground after Harry Kane had given the hosts an early lead.

Tuchel was scathing in his criticism of his side’s dreary display in beating minnows Andorra just 1-0 in World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The German, who was appointed with the task of ending England’s wait since 1966 for a major tournament win, has now suffered his first defeat in four games in charge.

‘The new Kaiser Chief’: Thomas Tuchel set to be England’s first German manager

“Not good enough. We had moments, but with and without the ball things aren’t clicking, we’re not finding the right tempo,” said England captain Kane.

“We’ve lost that aggressive nature that we had.”

Tuchel responded by making 10 changes, with Kane the only player to retain his place.

It took just seven minutes for the Bayern Munich striker to maintain his record of scoring in every game since Tuchel took charge.

Former Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy should have done better when he could only parry Anthony Gordon’s shot into the path of Kane, who tapped in his 73rd international goal.

Dean Henderson was given a rare chance to impress in the England goal as Jordan Pickford was relegated to the bench.

The Crystal Palace stopper made impressive saves from his club team-mate Sarr and Idrissa Gana Gueye.

But he was helpless when Sarr made the most of a lack of concentration from Kyle Walker to meet Nicolas Jackson’s cross and fire into the bottom corner.

England had never lost to African opposition in 21 previous matches but Senegal had been beaten just once from open play since losing to the Three Lions at the 2022 World Cup.

Diarra was afforded acres of room to run in behind the England defence and slot between the legs of Henderson to put the visitors in front just after the hour mark.

Mendy made amends for his role in the opening goal with fine saves to deny Bukayo Saka and Morgan Gibbs-White a swift equaliser.

England thought they had levelled late on when Jude Bellingham smashed home from a corner.

But the goal was ruled out for a handball by Levi Colwill before the ball broke to the Real Madrid midfielder.

Senegal made the most of that reprieve to seal a famous win in stoppage time when Sabaly rounded off a slick counter-attack.

Boos rained down from the disgruntled home support to leave Tuchel with plenty to ponder before England are next in action in September.

Source: AFP

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo said Saturday the individual honour should be awarded to a player who won the Champions League.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Nations League final in Munich between Portugal and Spain, the veteran said “trophies” should determine who wins the Ballon d’Or.

“In my opinion, whoever wins it should be on a team that has won trophies. The Ballon d’Or winner should be in a team that has won the Champions League,” the 40-year-old forward told reporters.

First awarded in 1956 by French magazine France Football, the Ballon d’Or is awarded to the player considered the best over the previous season.

Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-0 thumping of Inter Milan in the Champions League final last Saturday led to growing calls for Ousmane Dembele to win this season’s gong.

Spain starlet Lamine Yamal’s superb display in Thursday’s 5-4 Nations League semi-final win over France however had some arguing the teenager should be awarded the Ballon d’Or, which would make the 17-year-old the youngest winner in its history.

France coach Didier Deschamps backed Dembele for the award, saying “considering the season Ousmane is having, he deserves it and that’s all I wish for him”.

At a press conference in Stuttgart on Saturday, France captain Kylian Mbappe told reporters he backed Dembele.

“Does anyone really need me to explain? Right now we’re talking about Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele, but I’m voting for Dembele.”

Ronaldo said he “cannot tell you who deserves it” this season.

Ronaldo’s five wins is bettered only by Argentinian Lionel Messi, who has won the award eight times.

The duo had a monopoly on the award for a decade from Ronaldo’s first win in 2008 to his last in 2017.

The current holder is Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri.

Source:  AFP