How Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain at their own game to claim Club World Cup glory

East Rutherford. NJ – It was the kind of implementation that life quickly sucked out of the opposition. Players in wide spaces grabbed every moment they could find, where they surprised the opponents and early enough scored enough to get the game out of reach through peace. That’s how Paris Saint-Germain played in the UEFA Champions League final against Inter, and again in their club World Cup semi-final against Real Madrid on Wednesday. It was also how Chelsea Slags at Metlife Stadium on Sunday and beat PSG during their own competition to win the first edition of the extensive Club World Cup.

“Getting into the game right away, we set the tone,” said Levi Colwill of Chelsea after the game. “We pushed life on them. We knew that this was our last football match for the season, so there is no way I would go on vacation and think there:” I wish I could have gave that little bit more for the team, “and I told everyone this before, and we went to reflect the Scoreline and that is why we won today.”

The mentality looked like PSG’s all-gas-no-breaks style that made them the most entertaining team in Europe for the past six months, so that the opposition was quickly overwhelmed on their way to their first Champions League title and made them the favorites to win the Club World Cup. They quickly came a taste of their own medicine in the outskirts of New York City-Ze quickly looked tired when Chelsea brought the game to them and fell 2-0 against the half hour thanks to a brace of a brace of Cole Palmer and a third admitted before the break thanks Joao Pedro. Fatigue quickly went up for PSG, the individual players who fade one by one when a victory quickly slipped out of reach. Frustration started with a few tense moments, especially with Joao Neves’89th minute red card and a blow after the game with PSG manager Luis Enrique and Chelsea’s Joao Pedro.

“I think PSG is a team that, either you are pressing on them or that you are in trouble because they have so many talented players,” Manager Enzo said Maresca after the game, “but if you give them the time to link and get the ball, they are so good that in my personal opinion, if you give them time, you will be worse.”

However, Chelsea gave their own twist to things. In a match between two teams that would rather hold the ball, the blues liked to give possession to PSG and only had 34% possessed when everything was said and done. However, the attacking plan was healthy – they surpass PSG 10 to eight and placed 2.06 expected goals at 0.53 of the opponent. The intense first half paved the way for a routine second, the mission more or less reached by rest.

“They have three midfielders,” Maresca noted. “Two of them [Neves and Fabian Ruiz]They were in charge of Reece [James] And Moises [Caicedo]. Vitinha was in charge of Enzo [Fernandez]. We analyze them, we saw that that was a good opportunity to exploit that space and we used Cole and Malo [Gusto] on that side to create a little and overloaded that side and [tat] Was just the game plan. “

Setting the tone, such as Colwill that is referred to, was crucial for the success of Maresca’s plan.

“The idea was to go to man,” said Maresca. “I think PSG, they are so good that if you give them time, you struggle. In my personal opinion you have to press them very intensely. I think we can do the first 10 minutes. In our ideal world we have to do that 90 minutes, 95, but we knew that due to the weather conditions, we knew that [it] Was not possible to do long, but we tried to be very aggressive, don’t give them time and then we had some very good moments on the ball. We operated the space that we had planned and [it] Was very good. “

It is so little shock that Palmer, the brightest star of the blues, would deliver in moments like this. The England International builds up a habit to deliver at great moments and is easily at the top of the depth card, while the 20 Chelsea attackers do what they can do to earn valuable playing time. The surprise, however, was that Joao Pedro also felt a natural fit on the field next to Palmer. Less than two weeks ago, Joao Pedro was still in the books of Brighton and Hove Albion, but now has three goals in three games for Chelsea, who earned a start in the final about Liam Delap, who had previously been the Go-to-to-to-TO.

Maresca has praised Joao Pedro for his versatility and notes that he can play in multiple positions at the front, but his ability to make an impact against organized defenses makes him a quick favorite with the manager.

“Joao, I can say, is a great player,” said Maresca. “We can really use it with teams that defend in a very low block without spaces because it is really good in tight spaces.”

The vision for this version of Chelsea may not have always been clear, but a year after the recruitment of Maresca, the chaos of the schedule building still appears on large three years after Blueco after Blueco had taken over the club and the American businessman Todd Boehly took his role as chairman. Even in the midst of the disorganization, Chelsea’s Club World Cup victory offered a glimpse of what they can be on their best and that their belief in a group of rising talents is well supported. But first a well -deserved break is in order.

“I think we were on our way to the right direction during this season and we ended our season very well and now we have lifted this trophy, a fantastic trophy,” said Maresca. “About the future, luckily I have three weeks now because that is all that I want. It has been a non -stop for 15 months, and then we will see what will happen next season.”