Key Takeaways
- Chelsea will be looking to pull off the upset in the Club World Cup Final against PSG on Sunday.
- RG spoke to Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, and Paris boss Luis Enrique ahead of the showpiece.
- Enrique revealed why he believes his side is special while Colwill explained how the Blues are embracing the underdog mentality.
Christopher Nkunku #18 of Chelsea FC speaks with referee Francois Letexier (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
East Rutherford - If there’s one thing that Chelsea Football Club knows how to do, it’s ride the underdog gimmick to a trophy.
Back in 2012, nobody in their right mind would have even given them a fighting chance against one of the greatest teams of all time – Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Instead, they ended up winning 3-2 on aggregate, eliminating the defending champions and returning to the biggest match in European club football, where they defeated Bayern Munich in their own backyard to secure their first-ever Champions League title.
Fast forward nine years, they were drawn against newly crowned Premier League champions Manchester City. Against all odds, they defeated the heavily favored Mancunians and secured their second Champions League trophy. And on Sunday, they’ll be looking to achieve yet another improbable upset in the FIFA Club World Cup Final.
“If everyone thinks we’re going to lose, then we’ve got nothing to lose,” stated Chelsea center back Levi Colwill to RG. “We’ve got to go out there, play our football, be confident, and hopefully try and surprise everyone.”
Ever since beating City in the 2021 final and confirming their spot in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, Chelsea have gone through a turbulent few years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced legendary chairman Roman Abramovich to relinquish his ownership, with the BlueCo consortium replacing him at the helm. But despite splurging millions in the transfer market, Chelsea struggled to remain atop the podium of European football, finishing 12th in 2022/23 and failing to win a single major trophy, before finishing 6th in the 2023/24 season and losing to Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinals and Liverpool in the EFL Cup Final.
Despite their strong end to the campaign, Chelsea elected to part ways with manager Mauricio Pochettino after one year and appointed Enzo Maresca. Fast-forward one year, and it’s clear to see that this decision has paid off. After a two-year drought, Chelsea returned to the UEFA Champions League after finishing fourth in the Premier League table, whilst they also ended a four-year trophy drought after defeating Real Betis in the UEFA Conference League.
“[Enzo Maresca] is a top coach, that’s why we’re in the final…it’s because of him. He created a good team, a good energy between us, and we’re very happy to play with this coach,” stated Chelsea fullback Malo Gusto to RG. “It’s a bit different from last season in terms of details and how we play; he’s much more about tactics.”
Colwill concurred to RG: “He’s definitely given me the confidence that I needed, he allows me to play my best football and helps our team so much, if that’s tactically or just giving us the right information going into games, we really believe in him. He’s done amazingly and hopefully we carry on and win this competition with him.”
Under Maresca, Chelsea has gone from hibernating in the nadir of underachievers to punching above their weight and returning to the upper echelon. They’ve continued that throughout the FIFA Club World Cup, kicking off the tournament with a 2-0 victory vs. LAFC before falling to a 3-1 loss to Flamengo. The Blues would rebound in style with a 3-0 win vs. Esperence de Tunis before brushing past Benfica, Palmeiras, and Fluminense to confirm their spot in the FIFA Club World Cup Final vs. PSG.
You don’t need to be a football fanatic or a gambling savant to know that Paris Saint-Germain will be the overwhelming favorites in Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium. PSG has spent the past 12 years developing a chokehold on French football and staking their claim as one of the strongest teams in the world, and on May 31, their pursuit of a first-ever Champions League title finally came to an end. Les Parisiens demolished Inter Milan in Munich, going two goals to the good within 20 minutes and prevailing with a 5-0 victory.
They returned to action 15 days later, thrashing Atletico Madrid 4-0 in their FIFA Club World Cup opener, whilst their second match would see a heavily rotated PSG side lose 1-0 to Botafogo – Luis Enrique’s men would nevertheless bounce back with a 2-0 victory against Seattle Sounders to set up a Round of 16 clash against Inter Miami.
Going up against a Miami side featuring Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Javier Mascherano, all of whom played a vital role in Enrique’s first magnum opus and led Barcelona to the treble in 2014/15, Enrique showed little mercy for his former players. PSG opened the scoring in Atlanta after six minutes and added three more goals before halftime, sealing a 4-0 victory in the Peach State.
Despite ending the match with nine men, PSG also managed to beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the quarterfinal via late goals from Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele. What’s perhaps most stunning about PSG’s all-conquering dominance isn’t so much their style of play or wide margins of victory, but the fact that there isn’t a world-class superstar who is stealing the show like Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, or Neymar Jr.
After their ruthless demolition of Miami, I asked Enrique to compare his experience coaching his two greatest sides: Barcelona 14/15 and PSG’s current squad. On the surface, it seemed a valid question – after all, they were Enrique’s only two sides that had won the biggest prize in European club football.
He didn’t see it that way – instead, he sensed that I was trying to elicit a clickbait response out of him, and rebuked my assertion with a cop-out answer. “As you don’t know my coaching history, the best team that I coached, or at least the team that I enjoyed the most, was Barcelona B.” I vowed that, if I did get the chance to ask Enrique another question, I wouldn’t be humiliated like I was in Atlanta.
12 days later, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, I finally got that opportunity. I mentioned his quote from last summer, where he promised that, despite losing all-time leading scorer Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid on a free transfer, that PSG will be even better in 2024-25. His reasoning? Having a player with the freedom to move wherever he wants implies that there are situations where [Enrique] doesn’t control, and the following season, he will control every situation.
We stand before the most successful PSG team of all time, but also the first PSG team where there isn’t one superstar that stands out above the rest of the team…there isn’t a Zlatan, Neymar, or Mbappe. Do you think time has proven you right? Do you think it’s not a coincidence that the best PSG team coincides with a PSG team where there isn’t one star, but 11 stars?
“There isn’t just one PSG fan who’s a star, but all of the fans throughout the Parc de Princes. Ever since the first day that we arrived in Paris, we’ve agreed with this very well, and I think it’s something that represents our club. We’ll lose again at some point, because that’s top-level football for you, but I think the path is clear for everyone. We want stars, but at the service of the team – that’s our objective.”
Can Paris Saint-Germain close out the 2025/26 campaign by winning a fifth trophy? Or will Chelsea pull off an upset for the ages? Stay tuned for an enthralling final in New Jersey.
