We look ahead to this Group D match at the 2025 Club World Cup with our Chelsea vs LAFC prediction and preview.
Chelsea vs LAFC Stats: The Key Insights
Chelsea are strong favourites to defeat LAFC, with the Blues winning in 72.0% of the Opta supercomputer‘s pre-match simulations.
Since his Chelsea debut in September 2023, the only Premier League players to be involved in more goals in all competitions than Chelsea’s Cole Palmer (40 goals, 26 assists) are Mohamed Salah (92) and Erling Haaland (76).
Olivier Giroud, who played for Chelsea from 2018 to 2021, scored only one goal in 16 career matches against the Blues, the only opponent he’s faced 10 or more times and not scored at least twice against.
Chelsea will kick off their Club World Cup campaign on American soil against American opposition, with a match-up against Los Angeles FC in Atlanta.
After ending the Premier League campaign on a high and then going on to lift the UEFA Conference League, the Blues come into the tournament with plenty of aspiration and a taste for silverware. And come kick off time on Monday, Enzo Maresca’s side will be big favourites in their tournament opener against the West Coast side.
It remains to be seen who’ll make Enzo Maresca’s starting XI on Monday, but it’s Chelsea who bring the star power to this clash – most notably in the form of Cole Palmer.
Since making his debut for the club in September 2023, only Mohamed Salah (72) has more goal involvements in the Premier League than the 23-year-old (56 – 37 goals, 19 assists). And more recently, Palmer was the star of their UEFA Conference League triumph over Real Betis, becoming the first player to assist two goals for an English club in a major European final since Chelsea’s Juan Mata in 2013.
The former Manchester City man will be supported by a raft of fellow international players in the USA, including a pair of star midfield partners. Enzo Fernández was a key part of Argentina’s World Cup triumph in 2022 and was named as the best young player in that edition by FIFA, while the combative Moisés Caicedo was one of the Premier League’s best midfielders in 2024-25, leading all players for possession recoveries (229).
Los Angeles FC were the last team to qualify for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. They defeated Liga MX side Club América in a play-off on 31 May, winning 2-1 after extra time.
LAFC may be the lesser-known quantity, but they will be bringing some familiar faces to the FIFA Club World Cup.
Their goalkeeper is none other than Hugo Lloris, a World Cup winner with France in 2018 and holder of his nation’s all-time appearance record (145). Premier League followers will also remember him as the former number one at Tottenham; another team with which he holds a part of history, leading them for most games played in the Premier League (361).
The most recognisable figure – at least for Chelsea fans – will of course be Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman spent four seasons at Stamford Bridge between 2017 and 2021, scoring 39 goals and winning three major honours during his time there (FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, Europa League).
Although Los Angeles FC’s star attacker at present is Dénis Bouanga, a player who has been involved in 18 goals in 22 appearances across all competitions this term, Chelsea fans will know all about Giroud’s threat in the penalty area, both when starting and when coming off the bench.
Chelsea vs LAFC Prediction
Chelsea vs LAFC Prediction
Chelsea are strong favourites to start their 2025 FIFA Club World Cup tournament with a victory. They won this match against LAFC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 72.0% of the 10,000 pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer, while the Major League Soccer side won just 11.6% of the time.
A draw would be a good result for Steve Cherundolo’s side, with that result occurring 16.4% of the time in the sims.
Chelsea are expected to progress to the knockout stage via Group D, with the supercomputer giving them a 93.3% chance of doing so. Flamengo (51.4%) are just ahead of LAFC (35.4%) in the projections, with Espérance de Tunis the group outsiders for a last-16 spot (20.0%).
Chelsea vs LAFC Squads
Chelsea
Robert Sánchez, Marc Cucurella, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoît Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernández, Liam Delap, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Filip Jörgensen, Dário Essugo, Nicolas Jackson, Andrey Santos, Christopher Nkunku, Mamadou Sarr, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Moisés Caicedo, Malo Gusto, Aarón Anselmino, Tyrique George, Josh Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Mike Penders, Gabriel Slonina, Roméo Lavia.
Head Coach: Enzo Maresca
Los Angeles FC
Hugo Lloris, Eddie Segura, Marlon, Igor Jesus, Mark Delgado, Olivier Giroud, Timothy Tillman, Thomas Hasal, Sergi Palencia, Lorenzo Dellavalle, Jeremy Ebobisse, David Ochoa, Yaw Yeboah, Ryan Raposo, Frankie Amaya, Ryan Hollingshead, Maxime Chanot, Javairô Dilrosun, Nathan Ordaz, Artem Smolyakov, David Martínez, Cabral Carter, Aaron Long, Adam Saldana, Kenny Nielsen, Jude Terry, Matt Evans, Adrian Wibowo, Odin Thiago Holm, Nkosi Tafari, Denis Bouanga.
Head Coach: Steve Cherundolo
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic men’s football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both sides.
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