Chelsea won the 2025 Club World Cup on Sunday with a brilliant performance to beat PSG 3-0, a result which defied the odds and put a cap on an action-packed competition.
There were thrills, spills, shocks, and drama as the best sides in world club football came together in the USA in search of glory and a huge pot of cash. Eventually, Enzo Maresca’s Blues came out on top, and now we can take a breather before the domestic leagues start again in just over a month.
So let’s take a look at this SBOTOP writer’s Club World Cup 2025 highlights and my best four moments of the tournament.
Ice Cold Palmer is the man
After ripping up the Premier League in 2023/24 Chelsea’s creative midfielder Cole Palmer found it hard to replicate his form last term. But if his performance in the Club World Cup final is anything to go by, then Blues fans have nothing to worry about. The 23-year-old star had a hand in all three goals in a stunning win over PSG.
The French team were favourites in the final after sweeping away Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, while Chelsea had enjoyed a gentler run. Palmer, who had been looking jaded at times, took his chance to remind everyone just how clinical he can be. The Blues were three up by the break. First, Palmer finished brilliantly with a superb low strike when he met a pass from Malo Gusto, and he scored a similar goal with the coolest of finishes soon after.
Palmer turned provider when he picked out Joao Pedro, who made it three. It was the new signing’s third goal in two games after his brace had earned Chelsea a 2-0 semi-final win over Fluminense.
Thiago’s Fluminense stun Inter
Brazilian side Fluminense had a brilliant tournament, eventually losing to winners Chelsea. But of all the results which caught the eye in the competition, the standout was surely when the Flu beat Champions League runners-up Inter Milan.
In a team which boasted former PSG and Chelsea man Thiago Silva, it was experienced striker German Cano who got the Flu’s noses in front with just three minutes on the clock as he converted a deflected cross from Jhon Arias. Cano picked up a yellow card 10 minutes later when he accidentally barged into the referee as Fluminense began to defend for their lives.
I Nerazzurri flooded forward and, with 10 minutes to play, Lautaro Martinez was inches away from levelling when his shot hit the post and agonisingly rolled across the goal line and out to safety. And the Brazilian fans went wild when substitute Hercules powered forward to make it 2-0 three minutes into stoppage time.
Courtois makes a sensational last-gasp save
Real Madrid eventually bowed out of the competition in a chastening semi-final loss to PSG. But before that, they played out a five-goal thriller with Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-final. And with the game poised at 3-2 in favour of Los Blancos, BVB’s Marcel Sabitzer thought he’d levelled when he hit the sweetest shot arrowing towards the bottom corner. However, Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois used all his 6’7” frame to stretch out a fingertip and somehow turn the ball away.
Real Madrid had been coasting thanks to first-half goals from Gonzalo Garcia and Fran Garcia, but the game exploded into life in second-half stoppage time. First, Max Beier caused some jitters when he halved the deficit on 92 minutes, but Kylian Mbappe’s spectacular strike restored Los Blancos’ two-goal lead. Madrid centre-back Dean Huijsen was red-carded for fouling Serhou Guirassy, and the Dortmund striker scored from the resulting penalty.
And BVB thought they had equalised through Sabitzer, until Courtois stretched to pull off his wonder save.
PSG’s 15 minutes of madness
With 12 minutes on the clock of their quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich, Luis Enrique’s PSG were held at 0-0. But then, in a bizarre end to the game, they won 2-0 and had two players sent off, and they even survived a late penalty scare. The livewire Desire Doue popped up with a goal on 78 minutes, which we all assumed would be the winner, but nobody expected what came next.
As the game became fractious, PSG had both Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez sent off in quick succession. But without two defenders, they managed to score a second as the fit-again Ousmane Dembele struck in stoppage time. Bayern thought they had earned a penalty, but VAR intervened and the Bavarians crashed out.
The pre-tournament Club World Cup 2025 betting odds picked out PSG as a potential winner, and they looked pretty impressive all the way until they met Chelsea.
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