The 2025 Club World Cup has reached the semi-final stage and we have two fascinating ties to look forward to, with Brazilian side Fluminense taking on Chelsea; and then there’s a Euro heavyweight bout between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
While the Club World Cup 2025 betting odds say the eventual winner will come from the second of those two match-ups, Fluminense have already beaten Inter Milan and Chelsea are looking stronger by the month under the guidance of head coach Enzo Maresca. So, with a couple of days to ponder before the semi-finals kick off on Tuesday and Wednesday, let’s take a quick look back at the quarters and the players who made some sparkling Club World Cup 2025 highlights, winners or losers.
Gonzalo Garcia at Real Madrid
In my SBOTOP preview of Los Blancos’ match with Borussia Dortmund I asked whether Kylian Mbappe would make a return to the starting line-up, or whether his young understudy, Gonzalo Garcia would continue to impress. Well, as the Parisiens saw off Die Schwarzgelben by edging a five goal thriller, both Garcia and Mbappe were on target, alongside Fran Garcia. With injury time approaching Madrid were 2-0 to the good but goals from Serhou Guirassy and Max Beier made it a nervy finish.
The 21 year old Garcia has really broken through this tournament, given his opportunity by Mbappe’s illness, and he has shone ever brighter game by game, scoring the winner as Los Blancos beat Juventus last week and then bagging his fourth goal for the tournament in the win over Dortmund.
Desire Doue at Paris Saint-Germain
The meeting of Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain was probably the pick of the quarter-final ties for many and it certainly delivered as the Champions League champions picked off the Bundesliga kings with a 2-0 win, thanks to two late goals…and the Parisiens also picked up two red cards in the process. Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez were both red carded before Ousmane Dembele made the game safe, deep into injury time, but it was a goal from Desire Doue, on 80 minutes, which put the Ligue 1 giants firmly in charge.
Harry Kane thought he had equalised but the England man was offside and PSG continued their march towards world domination. Following his switch from Rennes in 2024, the 20 year old Doue had a strong first campaign in Paris, scoring six goals in 31 appearances from the wing. He’s been impressive for PSG throughout the USA based tournament and is a big reason his team is still on course.
Hercules at Fluminense
Brazilian side Fluminense booked their place in the Club World Cup semi-finals thanks to an impressive 2-1 win over Simone Inzaghi’s Al Hilal. Both teams had been disruptors in the competition, seeing off I Nerazzurri and Manchester City to reach this stage. The Flu went into the lead against the Saudis as Matheus Martinelli scored a first half scorcher, but after Al Hilal’s in-form striker Marco Leonardo equalised it was left to super-sub Hercules to grab the winner. Samuel Xavier headed the ball down to him and Hercules slotted home to send the Brazilian fans into ecstasy.
It was the second time in a week that 24 year old Hercules had climbed off the bench to score a late goal, as he hit Inter last week with another killer blow. These were his first two goals for Fluminense but Hercules will surely work his way into the first eleven as he grows in confidence.
Estevio Willian at Palmeiras…soon to be Chelsea
When Palmeiras kicked off against Chelsea they were hunting for revenge for their 2021 Club World Cup final defeat to the Blues, but they just fell short as an unlucky late own goal gave the Londoners a 2-1 victory. The excellent Cole Palmer had given Chelsea an early lead but they were pegged back by 18 year old Willian who levelled with a brilliant strike.
He was on the losing side but Willian has played his last game for Palmeiras as he has recently secured a 61m Euros move to Stamford Bridge and will join his new team immediately after the tournament. His trickery and ease on the ball has earned the young star the nickname Messinnho, a big name to live up to but he has time on his side and is now at one of Europe’s biggest clubs in Chelsea.
If he has as good a Premier League career as his countryman and namesake, the 36 year old Willian, who has starred at Chelsea, Arsenal and latterly Fulham, then the new Willian won’t be doing at all badly.
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