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ESPN News Services
Jul 9, 2025, 08:36 PM ET
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique volition anticipation to number connected striker Ousmane Dembélé for Sunday's Club World Cup finale against Chelsea, aft a stunning 4-0 thrashing implicit Real Madrid successful the tournament's penultimate stage.
The Ballon d'Or frontrunner rested the full radical signifier aft sustaining a thigh wounded portion connected work with France and was constricted to substitute appearances successful earlier knockout rounds, getting his archetypal commencement of the tourney connected Wednesday against the LaLiga titans.
He made an contiguous impact, aiding Fabián Ruiz successful the opening extremity successful the sixth infinitesimal earlier sending 1 into the nett 3 minutes aboriginal astatine MetLife Stadium.
Luis Enrique antecedently told reporters that helium believed Dembélé is deserving of the Ballon d'Or, and connected Wednesday said determination was nary uncertainty that the Frenchman had erstwhile again shown himself worthy of soccer's apical idiosyncratic honour.
"I'd similar to item that this is the archetypal crippled that I had my champion player, Dembélé, astatine his best," helium told reporters. "We'd seen him precise small passim this tournament, this is simply a captious player, a unsocial player, a subordinate that each instrumentality wants to see... hopefully we tin person him for the final."
The trophy connected Sunday against Chelsea would people a glittering extremity to a terrific season, arsenic Luis Enrique steered the squad to the continental treble, with a 5-0 decision of Inter Milan successful the Champions League last successful his 2nd twelvemonth with the team.
"We are 1 crippled distant to not conscionable marque past but to physique to past of Paris, of a French nine that mightiness get each cup, each tournament," Luis Enrique told reporters. "This is precise important for us, for our fans."
The Club World Cup last is acceptable for Sunday astatine 3 p.m. ET astatine MetLife Stadium to bring a adjacent to the inaugural variation of the 32-team FIFA nine competition.
Real Madrid has 15 European and 5 satellite titles, a modern planetary superpower marque established 2 decades agone successful the Galacticos epoch of David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, past lifted loftier by Cristiano Ronaldo from 2009-18 and the emergence of societal media.
PSG hadn't won a Ligue 1 rubric since 1995 erstwhile Qatar Sports Investments took implicit successful 2011. Paris has won 11 of 13 French championships since 2013 but until May failed to go Europe's best, contempt emulating Madrid's prima postulation erstwhile its lineup included Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.
A radical achieved much than the prima system.
"We've each made history, that is, the players, the staff, the sports director, the managers, the fans, we've each made history," Luis Enrique, hired successful July 2023, added.
PSG dominated each facet with a 631-255 vantage successful completed passes and 67% possession, including 76.5% successful the archetypal half.
"It's a achy defeat. We were not up to modular today," Madrid manager Xabi Alonso said aft the game.
PSG has outscored opponents 16-1 successful six matches, getting 3 goals from Ruiz, 2 each from Dembélé, Achraf Hakimi and João Neves, and 1 apiece from Désiré Doué, Lee Kang-in, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Senny Mayulu, Gonçalo Ramos and Vitinha. It hasn't allowed a extremity since a 1-0 nonaccomplishment to Botofogo successful its 2nd group-stage match.
"We're genuinely blessed to beryllium successful different final. Now we person to bask it due to the fact that we're doing thing historic," Ruiz said. "It's precise hard to scope each last this season, and present we're 1 measurement away."
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was utilized successful this story.
