A place in the first final of the new, supersized Fifa Club World Cup awaits either the reigning European champions, or the most decorated club in European Cup history.
In Wednesday’s glamour semi-final in New York, Paris Saint-Germain may have the stronger momentum, but history and aura lean towards Real Madrid. We pick out the night’s most significant – and spikiest – duels.
Luis Enrique v Xabi Alonso
Luis Enrique was a Real Madrid player who went on to find his greatest fulfilment in the jersey of Barcelona. Xabi Alonso spent part of his childhood at Barcelona and would give Real Madrid five of his peak years as a masterly midfielder.
At 43, he’s back there again, appointed as manager last month with his status as the brightest young manager in the long, distinguished line of elite Spanish tacticians secured. Luis Enrique, 55, ranks among the very best of that line.
Victory at the Club World Cup would give PSG a clean, quadruple sweep of titles for the season, including the most cherished prize – the club’s first Uefa Champions League.
It’s a tally of trophies to match the treble Luis Enrique guided Barcelona to as manager there a decade ago. Alonso, with only two full seasons under his belt as a senior coach, already has a double to his name, from his remarkable Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24 campaign.
There’s a steel to both. But where Luis Enrique can be abrasive, Alonso presents as impeccably urbane. They share a sharply defined set of guiding principles, leavened with pragmatism.
“I prefer to have possession in the opposition half, but we can be a resilient team too,” said Luis Enrique after a tough quarter-final against Bayern Munich earned the meeting with Madrid. “I’ve not come here with a list of demands,” said Alonso, “but to work hard, be dynamic and flexible.”
Kylian Mbappe v the PSG hierarchy
Mbappe spent seven seasons at PSG, signed as the most expensive teenager in the history of the sport, rising to become the all-time record goalscorer at the club and frequently entrusted with the captaincy. So far, so legendary.
But his long relationship with PSG was also punctuated by repeated episodes of restlessness, with several would-be moves to Real Madrid negotiated and then abated. Mbappe’s PSG epoch also snagged on a major professional frustration – the club’s failure to win the European Cup.
Mbappe finally joined 15-time European Cup-winners Madrid last summer, having declined to trigger a one-year extension on a PSG contract that had made him the world’s best-paid player.
The final severance details remain the subject of a tense, unresolved legal wrangle between the France captain, whose advisers claim he is owed around €55 million by PSG, and the club.
So there are grudges at play this evening. “The star now is the team,” said PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi once Mbappe, once the hero of the Parc des Princes, had departed.
And that Mbappe-free team now has the most desired star above the badge on its jersey, symbol of their first European Cup title, achieved in May. Mbappe, who reached a losing Champions League final and two semis in his Paris years, has yet to lift that trophy.
He came to the Club World Cup with a virus, missing early matches but has shaken it off and he made his case to make a first start under Alonso with a spectacular goal in the 3-2 quarter-final win over Borussia Dortmund.
He will gladly note that suspension means PSG are without two senior defenders, Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia v Trent Alexander-Arnold
Two of the most seismic movers in the 2025 transfer year so far. The Georgia winger, a breakout star at Napoli, joined PSG in January and galvanised their bid to claim the Champions League, decisive throughout the knockout phase and on the scoresheet, brilliantly, in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final.
Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool, the club he had grown up with, last month, debuting for Madrid at the Club World Cup.
If Kvaratskhelia, with his low centre of gravity and his teasing dribbles, can be like an old-fashioned sort of a winger, England’s Alexander-Arnold has become one of the modern game’s great innovators, rewriting the job definition of full-back to embrace the duties of the traditional central midfielder as well as those of the wide attacker.
Should Alonso channel the best of Alexander-Arnold, Madridistas will come to believe their new recruit is three players in one.
The long-term solution to a gap at right-back; the precise, visionary passer they have yearned for since the retirement, last year, of Toni Kroos; and a set-piece genius with the combined excellence, striking a dead ball, of previous, famous British imports to Madrid, David Beckham and Gareth Bale.
But Alexander-Arnold’s progressive instincts do leave gaps for a sharp opponent to exploit. And in previous meetings – Liverpool against Napoli in 2023; Liverpool against PSG in March this year – Kvaratskhelia has often troubled Alexander-Arnold with his speed and nimble feet.
Aurelien Tchouameni against PSG’s Iberian wizards
The manager of France, Didier Deschamps, is expected in New York, to view from the VIP seats two of the most relevant club sides to his national team.
While PSG’s success, and their free scoring in particular, is a blessing for Les Bleus – PSG’s front three usually includes at least two of the three French forwards Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola – their formidable midfield trio of Fabian Ruiz, of Spain, and Vitinha and Joao Neves, both of Portugal, are a trio Deschamps can only watch with envy.
Much of the task of disrupting their slick passing angles will fall to Tchouameni, the one true anchor midfielder in the likely line-ups of both sides.
Tchouameni – 25 years old and with 41 caps for France – has heard from Alonso that he has a vital part in his plans, but in a Madrid squad heavily leaned towards attack, the deepest midfielder can often be forgiven for feeling his job is a thankless one.
Last season, Tchouameni was on occasion booed by home supporters for perceived shortcomings in his shielding role. He was also cast, frequently, as an emergency firefighter, pushed into service in the centre-back position to cover for injuries.
A performance of authority from Tchouameni would make a significant statement for the Xabi era – and be appreciated by sceptical Madridistas and by Deschamps.
