FIFA Club World Cup
Advertisement
live
Updated 3m ago
Chelsea have beaten Fluminense 2-0 to reach the FIFA Club World Cup final.
They will play either Real Madrid or European champions Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium.
Joao Pedro was the star of Tuesday’s game. The £60million ($81.5m) signing from Brighton & Hove Albion scored two wonderful goals either side of the half-time break to send Chelsea through.
But the game ended on a sour note for Chelsea as the superb Moises Caicedo suffered a concerning-looking ankle injury.
Thiago Silva was very good again today, but the 40-year-old didn't quite have the supporting cast around him to repel an impressive Chelsea side.
Plenty of his former team-mates rushed over to embrace him at full time while former defensive partner Trevoh Chalobah swapped his jersey. Although I'm not sure why anyone would want someone else's sweaty jersey on a day like this!
Advertisement
After Chelsea and Fluminense, the kits and flags I saw the most here at MetLife were Ecuador. Those fans turned out to see Moises Caicedo and were treated to a fantastic performance that appeared to end in an unfortunate injury.
I'm sure there are plenty more Ecuador fans hoping that Caicedo will be fit enough to play again on Sunday. It would be a shame to lose that contingent for the final.
When France and Argentina won their semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup, their celebrations were rapturous outpourings of joy. When the final whistle blew here at MetLife to confirm Chelsea's victory, their celebrations were muted. If you didn't know, you'd assume this match had ended in a draw.
Despite Gianni Infantino heralding a new era of soccer, this competition has a long, long way to go before it truly earns its "World Cup" title.
By my calculations, that win puts Chelsea's earnings from this tournament up to a minimum of $104 million from this tournament if they finish as runners-up on Sunday, rising to $114 million if they win the final.
That's not a bad return having played three Brazilian teams, Benfica, LAFC and Esperance de Tunis. Then when you consider Chelsea are only in this tournament because they won the Champions League four years ago under a different ownership, it all seems rather peculiar.
The only starting player on the field today from Chelsea's 1-0 win over Man City in 2021 which qualified them for this tournament is Thiago Silva – but he now plays for Fluminense.
A visualisation of how that game played out, with Chelsea running out deserved winners in the end.
I'm hardly the first person to say it, but you have to give it up for the Fluminense fans and the Brazilian fans writ large. Their club has been eliminated and yet they're still waving their flags, still showing their love.
Their supporters' section at the end of the stadium is still completely full, whereas the Chelsea section is already half empty.
Advertisement
Fluminense had their chances today. The goal-line clearance and the disallowed penalty in the first half, several decent opportunities in the second half.
This was always the type of game in which an upset would require them to capitalise on the few big chances that came their way, and that wasn't the case.
Enzo Maresca looked very uneasy at the end of that game with Moises Caicedo clearly in a lot of pain with his ankle.
The Ecuadorian went back out for the final few seconds of the game but didn't even get to the end of stoppage time before walking off again.
Given there are just five days until the final, it definitely puts Caicedo's involvement in that game at major risk.
We always hear talk of 'peaking at the right time' at these major tournaments and that feels like exactly what Chelsea have done here.
Given the stage of the Club World Cup, that was easily their most accomplished performance of the Club World Cup and they built some nice momentum heading into Sunday's final.
And they have an extra day's rest too, as Real Madrid and PSG play tomorrow.
So an all-European final then, as pretty much everyone expected. Chelsea have history against both of their potential opponents in the final, Real Madrid and Paris-Saint Germain.
Chelsea beat Madrid in the semi-final of the Champions League in 2021 en route to winning the competition, which earned them their berth to this tournament more than four years later. Madrid knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League each of the next two years, however.
Chelsea and PSG haven't faced one another since 2016, the third of three straight seasons in which they met in the knockout stages of the UCL.
FT Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
After a ridiculously elongated period of stoppage time, the full-time whistle is blown and Chelsea are heading to their third Club World Cup final!
Joao Pedro marked his full debut for his new club with a pair of superb finishes and he will surely lead the line for them in Sunday's final.
Chelsea will face Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium after eliminating Fluminense with a really professional performannce.
Advertisement
90+5' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
A shred of good news for Chelsea fans with Caicedo walking off the pitch on his own rather than needing a stretcher or help from the physios.
He was, however, walking very gingerly.
It looks as though Caicedo wants to finish the match which seems very irresponsible.
90+3' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
This is not good for Enzo Maresca and Chelsea.
With the game petering to its conclusion, Caicedo is down on the turf and clearly in an awful lot of pain.
The replay showed that he got his studs quite badly caught in the grass and rolled his ankle. Everyone of a Chelsea persuasion will be desperately hoping that is nothing serious given the final is in just five days' time.
90+1' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
Fluminense have six minutes to find two goals, otherwise they will be heading home.
I think the Brazilians could be given another hour and they wouldn't get back into it. They are still working really hard to get back into it but Chelsea have just been the better team — and by some distance too.
89' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
Other than those changes, there has been little to report in the last few minutes as Chelsea are closing this out in a very professional manner.
Caicedo has been central to everything again. The biggest praise of his impact in this Chelsea team is that hardly anyone mentions his eye-watering price tag when talking about him.
Him and Enzo Fernandez have built a terrific midfield partnership.
86' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
Sensing the job is almost done, there are two changes for Chelsea in the last throes of this semi-final.
Nkunku and Fernandez have been replaced by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Andrey Santos.
Advertisement
85' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
Having just about seen off another Chelsea attack, Fluminense know that is now or never for them at this tournament.
Substitute Setaldo is at the heart of everything they are doing. The issue with that is that he isn't doing anything particularly well so Chelsea are coping pretty easily.
Fluminense have just run out of steam against a very impressive Chelsea side.
81' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
Great work initially from Jackson to win the ball back and drive into the Fluminense penalty area, but he had to square the ball for Palmer who would have had an open goal from inside the six-yard box.
Having done the hard work, the Chelsea substitute smacked his effort into the side netting which prompted Palmer to kick the post in anger before telling his team-mate exactly what he thought.
Jackson reluctantly lifted a hand to apologise, but it fell on pretty deaf ears.
78' Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea
One of the messages rotating through the advertising hoardings on the sidelines is a warning against the dangers of playing through concussions. Included was branding for the World Health Organization, which is rather ironic because one of the first things U.S. president and pal of Gianni Infantino, Donald Trump, did upon retaking office in January of this year was withdraw the U.S. from the WHO.