goal.com

Club World Cup Xi: PSG deliver a Real Madrid battering, Chelsea cruise by Fluminense to reach…

GOAL US looks at the main storylines from the semifinals, and previews the PSG-Chelsea final in the Club World Cup XI

Well, that was a rude wake up call. Anyone who knew anything about football could have told you that it was going to be a rough afternoon for Real Madrid in the Club World Cup semifinals. PSG are miles better, and Los Blancos are a tactical mess in their own right. But a battering of that magnitude? Wow.

Perhaps, too, it's the game the CWC needed, something so lop-sided that even casuals could admit that one team is trying. Deliver that kind of drama over and over, and there might just be something here.

It is a shame, then, that the other side of the draw delivered something more tepid. Chelsea played a lot like Chelsea against Fluminense: not particularly well, but with just enough on the day against a respectable opponent. Most would have been rooting for Fluminense as is, but there was, in a similar way, a cruel inevitability to things.

Article continues below

Still, it seemed as if whichever team qualified would be treated to the luxury of being absolutely spanked by the Parisians in the final. That might just be the key to it all. The CWC is supposed to determine the best club in the world, and the club team in the world goes and wins it. No way anything else happens, right?

GOAL US presents the Club World Cup XI, with key observations heading into the final.

Read full news in source page