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Paris Saint-Germain plays against Atlético Madrid with 80,619 in attendance during the second half of a FIFA Club World Cup soccer match at Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Paris Saint-Germain won 4-0.(Photo by Raul Romero Jr., Contributing Photographer)
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PASADENA — The champions are looking to stay the champions.
Paris Saint-Germain, who won the UEFA Champions League to cap their season earlier this month, kicked off the FIFA Club World Cup in strong fashion Sunday at the Rose Bowl in front of 80,619.
PSG, one of the favorites to win the first 32-team, expanded version of the tournament, continued its dominance with a 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in Group B.
This was the first of six games to be played at the Rose Bowl in group stage.
To incentivize teams to compete, especially after a long club season for European clubs, FIFA has created a wage scale that even pays $1 million for a draw in a group stage game. Any win in the group stage earns teams $2 million.
PSG didn’t appear to need any extra motivation.
Fabian Ruiz opened the scoring in the 19th minute and early into first-half stoppage time, Vitinha made it 2-0. Vitinha’s goal came moments after Atletico Madrid nearly opened its scoring account, Antoine Griezmann’s attempt was smothered by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The expanded tournament is the creation of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The old version consisted of champions from the different confederations around the world.
“For the first time in history, the 32 best clubs in the world will compete in a tournament to determine finally who is the best club in the world,” he said at a pre-tournament event. “The winner can win up to $125 million, so this is of course very, very significant. But it’s about the glory, as well, of writing your name, the name of the winning club and of all the participating clubs, writing your name in history.”
Atletico scored just before the 60th-minute mark on a clean finish by Julian Alvarez. However, the goal was disallowed after a video review check due to a foul on Atletico in the build-up.
From there, things snowballed for Diego Simeone’s men. Atletico went down to 10 men on Clement Lenglet’s second yellow card in the 76th minute. In all, Atletico received seven yellow cards.
Ten minutes later, PSG put the game firmly away on Senny Mayulu’s goal for a 3-0 lead. Lee Kang-in capped the day with a successful penalty kick deep into stoppage time.
The teams met last November in the league phase play in the UEFA Champions League, with Atletico winning 2-1 thanks to a stoppage time goal by Angel Correa.
Atletico finished its domestic season in third place, behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain’s La Liga.
PSG returns to action, Thursday, also at the Rose Bowl against Botafogo of Brazil. Atletico moves to Seattle for its second group stage game, facing the Seattle Sounders.