And then there were eight … let the CWC quarter-finals begin

Image: SounderBruce courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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And then there were eight … let the CWC quarter-finals begin

The Club World Cup is getting to the business end of the tournament, with the quarter-finals getting underway in Orlando, Florida this afternoon (US time), when Fluminense face Al-Hilal ahead of Chelsea’s last-eight match against Palmeiras in Philadelphia this evening. As we all know by now, there have been BIG shocks and the quarter-finals are perhaps not what we would expect.

Here is how the quarter-finals are set up:

4 July Fluminense (BRA) v Al-Hilal (SAU) Orlando

4 July Palmeiras (BRA) v Chelsea (ENG) Philadelphia

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the semi-finals

5 July PSG (FRA) v B Munich (GER) Atlanta

5 July Real Madrid (SPA) v B Dortmund (GER) East Rutherford

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the semi-finals

Chelsea reach the quarters … after a four-hour match

Chelsea progressed to the last eight of the Club World Cup (CWC) after a game that last more than four hours due to a weather interruption. To say that it was a controversial occasion would be underplaying it, as Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca effectively blasted the tournament “a joke”, and said that the USA is not a fit place to stage a major tournament.

Given that America will co-host the World Cup next summer, and stage a majority of the matches, this was a damning statement from a top manager.

Chelsea eventually won 4-1 after extra time and eased through to their last-16 tie with Palmeiras but the problems began after 87 minutes of the match had been played and Chelsea were 1-0 ahead. It was at this point that the players, staff from both clubs and fans were ordered inside because of potential danger from extreme weather, or thunderstorms in the vicinity in other words.

This was the sixth match of the CWC to be suspended due to seasonal storms, and the second most delayed game so far. Benfica versus Auckland in the group stage was delayed longer.

From kick-off to the final whistle, the Chelsea match lasted four hours and 39 minutes. 

"I think it's a joke, to be honest," said Maresca. "It's not football. It's completely something new; I struggle to understand. "I can understand if it's security reasons but if you suspend seven or eight games then it's probably not the right place to do the competition.

"It's not normal to suspend the game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero probably. In Europe how many games get suspended? Zero.

"We've been here two weeks and they've already suspended six or seven games. There is some problems for me personally.”

Back to the football, Chelsea were on course for a win thanks to Reece James’s 64th-minute goal, but after the mammoth delay, Ángel Di María equalised from the spot in the 95th minute of normal time. Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored in extra time to seal and emphatic (eventual) victory.

Chelsea will face Palmeiras today after the latter eliminated their compatriots Botafogo 1-0 after extra time in the last 16.

European giants, led by PSG, started to flex their muscles

There will be a battle of European giants tomorrow in Atlanta when the reigning Champions League title holders PSG face the six-time European Cup / CL winners Bayern Munich. Both of those clubs scored four goals to reach the last eight, with PSG thumping Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami 4-0 and Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich beating Flamengo of Brazil 4-2. Kane scored a brace in that one.

It seemed likely at the outset of the CWC that European clubs would dominate the latter stages and so it has proved thus far, with five of the teams in the quarter-finals coming from Europe.

That should perhaps be “only” five European teams because using world rankings, we might have expected that eight of the last eight would have been from Europe.

PSG were always hot favourites to beat Inter Miami, with OPTA’s super computer giving them an 80.3% chance of a win over 90 minutes before kick-off. OPTA, who rank PSG are the No3 best best team in the world and Inter Miami as the No153 ranked team (two places below Wrexham), gave PSG just a 7.2% chance of a win, and that proved accurate.

PSG were out of sight and 4-0 up before half-time thanks to two goals from João Neves, an own goal from Tomás Avilés and a strike from Achraf Hakimi.

Bayern through at the expense of Flamengo … but Brazilians have dominated CWC

Bayern Munich reached a tantalising quarter-final against PSG by eliminating Flamengo of Brazil 4-2 in Miami on Sunday. Brazil had four teams in the last 16 and will have two in the last eight so it’s perhaps not a surprise that Brazilian players were the most common nationality at the start of the tournament. 

But there were so many more Brazilians than any other nationality (141 of them), that something else was going on. Everyone loves a Brazilian, and indeed 23 of the 32 clubs that started the CWC had at least one Brazilian in their squads. 

As FIFA reported at the end of the group stage: “Brazil had the most goal scorers of any country with 18 [in the group stage], just ahead of South American neighbours Argentina (17), with France (11) next among the 38 different nationalities that found the net…

“In total, 72 nationalities were represented on the pitch, with Brazil and Argentina again leading the way with the most players (91 and 73 respectively). Portugal (32) were third-highest overall and the best-represented European country.”

City and Inter crash out on a Monday of mega-shocks!

There were two huge shocks on a manic Monday in the last 16, as Champions League runners-up Internazionale (ranked No11 in the world in OPTA’s power rankings) were eliminated by Fluminense of Brazil (ranked No153). Then Manchester City, Premier League champions in six of the last eight years, and ranked No4 in the world, were beaten 4-3 after extra time by Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia, ranked closer to No100.

This was unequivocally the shock of the tournament so far.

Bernardo Silva opened the scoring before Leonardo and Malcom gave Al-Hilal a lead early in the second half. Erling Haaland quickly levelled things. In extra time, Kalidou Koulibaly put the Saudi club ahead, Phil Foden scored to see City equalise (again) and then Leonardo won it in the 112th minute.

Three of the Al-Hilal’s scorers were Brazilian.

Manchester City will have left the tournament with around $52m (£38m) in appearance money and prize cash but if they had gone on to win the CWC, that would have been almost $126m (£92.6m).

City manager Pep Guardiola said: “In the end we have to score and be clinical. They [Al-Hilal] did not create much in the first half, we did but could not finish it. 

“I had a feeling we could go through. We allowed them to make transitions [but] we created a lot. It is a pity, we have been on an incredible journey together and in a good place. The vibe was really good, I cannot thank Manchester City enough and especially the players for training and how they have been playing.”

City had shown glimpses of their imperious selves earlier in the tournament, being the only team to win all three of their group games, and doing so at a canter. But one cloud on the horizon is that Rodri, absent for most of last season, seems to have had an injury setback, going off injured in the last-16 game. The severity of that remains to be seen.

Al-Hilal manager Simone Inzaghi said: “We knew we had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and we were great.”

Real Madrid and Dortmund advance to the QFs, and a 17th head-to-head meeting

Real Madrid and Dortmund respectively beat Juventus (1-0) and Monterrey (2-1) to reach a quarter-final against each other tomorrow in East Rutherford.

The two clubs have met each other on 16 previous occasions, with Real Madrid winning eight, Dortmund three, and five draws.

Real Madrid won their last meeting, 5-2, in the group stages of the last season’s Champions League, and their meeting before that, the 2024 Champions League final at Wembley, 2-0. Real also won home and away in the two meetings before that in the 2017-18 CL group stages, and the clubs shared two draws in the CL group stage the season before.

Dortmund’s last win against Real Madrid was in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals in 2013-14, taking that 2-0. But they had already lost the first leg 3-0 and were knocked out.

The CWC quarter-finals, against expectation, include two Brazilian teams, two German teams, and one each from England, Saudi Arabia, France and Spain.

PSG, at the time of writing, are slight favourites ahead of Real Madrid, followed by Chelsea and then Bayern.