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By now, we’ve learned not to underestimate this tournament.
The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 didn’t arrive with much warmth. Expanded to 32 teams, dropped into the middle of the U.S. like some travelling football circus, it felt bloated, a little lost, maybe even forced. Some called it soulless before a ball was kicked.
But it’s turned into something else.
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It has had bite. It has had moments that stop you. Matches that felt like they mattered. Late winners, crunching tackles, managers losing their minds on the touchline. A proper tournament, in the end, not perfect, but full of stories.
And now, we’re down to four. Four clubs are still standing. More chances to add something unforgettable to a competition that, for all its baggage, has found a scintillating pulse.
But before we get into Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG, and Fluminense — four very different clubs colliding in very different ways, let’s pause for something more human.
The news of the tragic passing of Diogo Jota, 28 and his brother Andre Silva, 25 sent ripples through the game. They never played a minute in this competition, but you saw them everywhere in the quarter final games. In Dembélé’s goal celebration. In Mbappe’s goal celebration. In the silence before kick-offs.
Football rarely stops for anything. But it paused, just enough, for them.
And then, as it always does, it carried on.
So it feels right, somehow, that the tournament carries on with a little more weight behind it.
On Tuesday, At MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, that sense of occasion will hang thick as Fluminense take on Chelsea. It’s a match-up that feels like two planets on different orbits, the soulful, high-tempo play of the Brazilian champions colliding with the tactical symmetry of Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea.
There’s something almost poetic in how Fluminense, after years in the shadows of Brazilian football royalty, are now here. Led by Thiago Silva they’ve played like a team with nothing to lose. But make no mistake, they want this. You could see it in the way they edged past Inter in the Round of 16, and Al Hilal in the quarter-finals. There’s no fluke here. Just momentum.
Chelsea, by contrast, are navigating a season that never quite decided what it wanted to be. Under Maresca, they’ve become more precise, more patient. But they’re also still fragile, capable of blowing teams away, or being blown apart by moments of chaos. Their win over Palmeiras was neither emphatic nor elegant, but it was effective. Against Fluminense, though, this will be a different kind of game. A test of their control against a side that lives off emotional surges.
Then comes the heavyweight clash. Paris Saint-Germain against Real Madrid.
PSG are different. Leaner. Hungrier. Quieter, maybe, in all the right ways. The Neymar-Mbappé-Messi circus is gone, and what’s left is more of a team. Dembélé, reborn. Young Doué keeps delivering massively. Vitinha, Neves, Mendes, Hakimi, in fact the whole team — quietly magnificent. Against Bayern, they didn’t just win — they showed dominance. And in a tournament known for chaos, they looked terrifyingly composed even when they were two men down.
But Real Madrid remain Madrid. Tired, inevitable, ever dangerous. Their win over Dortmund was uneven, but the core of it was familiar: resilience. Gonzalo García rising and showing why he can be a part of the team. Fullbacks Fran Garcia and Trent dazzling. They look like they can get the Alonso ball flying high to the top
So what happens now?
Experience meets energy. Legacy meets fire.
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Fluminense vs Chelsea might be the emotional heart of the semi-finals. Old-world football romance vs the post-Roman experiment still trying to figure itself out.
PSG vs Madrid, meanwhile, is about legacy. PSG want to show they are the new King who can be here for long. Madrid also want to show that they can always be that team you rever.
And when the semi-finals kick off in New Jersey this week, there will be tension. There will be spectacle. And maybe, just maybe, there will be something beautiful.
A goal that matters.
A moment for Jota.
A moment for Andre.
For Football.
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