PSG on the brink of historic quadruple

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — Decked out in their team's iconic "Midnight Navy" shirts, Paris Saint-Germain supporters were engulfed in a sea of white.

Real Madrid fans accounted for 95 percent of the crowd at MetLife Stadium for Wednesday's Club World Cup semifinal, the jerseys of Los Blancos radiant in the bright summer sun. Yet, it was PSG fans in a couple of sections behind one goal who cheered virtually from start to finish as their team moved within one win of a historic quadruple.

A 4-0 rout of Real Madrid in a Club World Cup semifinal, following a 5-0 wipeout of Inter Milan in the Champions League final, reinforced PSG's status as, arguably, the dominant soccer team of the mid-2020s.

"We have always said that the collective work by the players is what's helping us," said Fabian Ruiz, who scored twice as PSG built a three-goal lead in the first 24 minutes.

"We are a great group; a young group that is working well."

PSG moved on to Sunday's final against Chelsea in the first expanded Club World Cup with a chance to win its fourth major title of the season, exactly 100 days after it clinched Ligue 1 on April 5. It added the Coupe de France by beating Reims 3-0 on May 24, then romped over Inter seven days later.

PSG's blue, red and white jerseys don't have glamorous names pressed across the back, and they may not be as ubiquitous as the red shirts of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal or blue hues of Manchester City or Chelsea, but the team is filling up the trophy cabinet at Parc des Princes, its cramped, outdated stadium a stone's throw away from Roland Garros and the Bois de Boulogne.

On May 31 in Munich, Achraf Hakimi got the first goal 12 minutes in, Desire Doue scored the next two and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu added one goal each.

This time, Ruiz scored in the sixth minute and Ousmane Dembele in the ninth, following glaring mistakes by Real defenders Raul Asencio and Antonio Rudiger, before Ruiz made it 3-0 to cap a sweeping counterattack. Goncalo Ramos added another goal in the 87th.

Dembele, this year's Ligue 1 Golden Boot winner with 21, started for the first time since straining his left quad with France on June 5. He missed the Club World Cup group stage and was a substitute in PSG's first two knockout matches, scoring in second-half injury time during Saturday's 2-0 quarterfinal win over Bayern Munich.

"This is the first match in this World Cup that we can use Ousmane as a normal player," PSG coach Luis Enrique said. "I think he is the best player this season by a long way, and I think he deserves to win everything, because he gave everything to the team. And, the team is going to achieve trophies, which is the most important thing for a club."

Real Madrid has 15 European and five world titles, a modern global superpower brand established two decades ago in the Galacticos era of David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, then lifted to loftier heights by Cristiano Ronaldo from 2009-18 and the rise of social media.

When Qatar Sports Investments took over PSG in 2011, the club hadn't won a Ligue 1 title since 1995.Paris has won 11 of 13 French championships since 2013, but until May struggled to become Europe's best, despite its own catalog of stellar talent that included Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

A team, though, achieved more than the star system.

"We've all made history, that is, the players, the staff, the sports director, the managers, the fans; we've all made history," Enrique, hired in July 2023, said.

PSG dominated every aspect with a 631-255 advantage in completed passes and 67 percent possession, including 76.5 percent in the first half.

"It's a painful defeat. We were not up to standard today," Real's new coach Xabi Alonso said.

PSG has outscored its opponents 16-1 across six matches, getting three goals from Ruiz, two each from Dembele, Hakimi and Joao Neves, and one apiece from Doue, Lee Kang-in, Kvaratskhelia, Mayulu, Ramos and Vitinha.

It hasn't conceded a goal since its 1-0 loss to Botofogo in its second group-stage match.

"We're truly happy to be in another final. Now, we have to enjoy it, because we're doing something historic," Ruiz said. "It's very difficult to reach every final this season, and now we're one step away (from winning another)."

Agencies via Xinhua