Apart from Real Madrid’s opening draw with Al-Hilal (1-1), PSG’s defeat to Botafogo (1-0) was the biggest surprise at the FIFA’s Club World Cup so far. The Parisians not only won the Champions League, but did it in a most dominate fashion and they are in great form, and yet they lost to the Brazilian club who defended throughout the match. Luis Enrique’s men were on the front pages for the wrong reasons, but the Spanish coach was not worried. His team dominated even in that loss and after all, this is a group competition, just like the Champions League. In 2023, PSG were demolished in Newcastle (4-1) but managed to go all the way to the semi-finals. So, all they needed tonight was a win, and that was accomplished easily, considering that the opponent was an American team, Seattle Sounders 2-0. With this win, they finished in the first place in Group B and will play with the runner-up in Group A, which can be either Palmeiras, or Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.🚨🌎 GOAL | PSG 1-0 Seattle Sounders | KvaratskheliaKVARATSKHELIA OPENS THE SCORING FOR PSG!pic.twitter.com/Dz8RrLLahV— Tekkers Foot (@tekkersfoot) June 23, 2025 The only way to surprise the much stronger opponent is to be more aggressive than usual and to attack them. And that’s exactly what Seattle did in the first half. For about 15 minutes, the Parisian have hardly crossed into the Seattle’s part of the field and when they did, Desire Doue had a great shot which forced keeper Stefan Frei to a one-hand save. But before that the hosts had an opportunity in the 10th minute, when Ragen touched the ball with his head, but it went wide of the upper right post. PSG keeper Donnarumma made a blunder in the 19th minute, which nearly allowed Seattle to take the lead, but striker Ferreira didn’t expect a ‘gift’ from the Italian keeper and send the ball well over. And that was basically all from Seattle in the first half, as PSG soon took over. The Parisians pressed and pressed and in the end they took a lucky lead in the 35th minute. Mendes took the corner kick and the ball went to Vitinha who took a shot from 20 meters, but the ball hit Kvaratskhelia and changed direction.Hakimi | 🇺🇸 Seattle Sounders 0-2 PSG 🇫🇷Hakimi send the ball back end of the netpic.twitter.com/wRKraUJlWS— Goals Xtra (@GoalsXtra) June 23, 2025 With a lead, PSG just needed to be a bit more aggressive in order to secure the win and that’s exactly what they did in the second half. The second goal came in the 66th minute, but just like before the first one, Seattle had a great chance seconds earlier. Vargas was put through on goal brilliantly, but he hesitated to get a shot off, allowing PSG’s defenders to intervene. A counter followed, in which Barcola saw an umarked Hakimi in the penalty area, and the rest was easy. After the second goal, it was all over and the Parisian quietly brought the game to a close.FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP 2025Matchday 3MondayAtletico Madrid – Botafogo 1-0 (0-0)/Griezmann 87/Seattle – PSG 0-2 (0-1)/Kvaratskhelia 35, Hakimi 66/Tuesday04:00: (5.00) Inter Miami (2.50) Palmeiras (2.25)04:00: (1.70) Porto (3.70) Al Ahly Cairo (5.10)22:00: (50.0) Auckland (25.0) Boca Juniors (1.01)22:00: (4.65) Benfica (3.20) Bayern (1.95)***odds are subject to change***
