Chelsea’s trusted central defender Trevoh Chalobah is aware of the huge danger posed by Paris Saint Germain forwards Ousmane Dembélé, Fabián Ruiz, Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey tonight. The game will kick off at 9pm SA time.
The quartet was in devastating form against Real Madrid in the semifinal midweek. PSG clobbered Madrid 4-0, eliminating them from the competition in an embarrassing manner.
The speedy PSG forwards have an uncanny knack of forcing defenders into committing costly errors.
The experienced German defender Antonio Rüdiger, Raúl Asencio and Jude Bellingham were a case study in the Wednesday night encounter.
They were reduced to amateurs, and inside nine minutes, Madrid were already trailing by two goals, with the match as good as over as a contest.
The French side is steamrolling all the opponents coming its way.
After blowing away Inter Milan 5-0, the biggest victory in UEFA Champions League Cup final history, PSG began their Club World Cup bid by putting four past Atletico Madrid, and the ease with which they disposed of Real here was striking.
However, Chelsea are on the up and will not be pushovers for their French foes tonight.
The Blues, who have been quietly going on about their business unnoticed, arrived in the final after beating Fluminense 2-0 on Tuesday.
Chalobah says they will continue with the same process that has served them so well throughout the Club World Cup.
The defender more than played his part in Chelsea registering a third clean sheet of the tournament in the victory over Fluminense, recording a Chelsea-high seven recoveries and not misplacing one of his 54 passes.
Chalobah told the club’s website that it is a collective effort that has gone into their success so far. He also detailed his emotions at reaching a second final in a matter of weeks.
“We’re over the moon,” said Chalobah. “It’s been one of our goals since the first game of the tournament, and it’s nice to get into the final.
“All we can manage is what happens on the pitch, and the boys have done that well throughout this tournament. Now we have one more step.
“It’s good to have that type of quality and add it to a strong group. We will prepare the same way we have been preparing for every game. Nothing changes; we will prepare the same.
“It will be exciting to play one of the best teams in the world, and we will be ready,” he added.
