Paris Saint-Germain booked their spot in the semi-finals of the 2025 Club World Cup with a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich.
The defending European champions are the favourites to win the tournament but they looked the more likely side to bow out in Atlanta. Luis Enrique’s men were under the cosh for a lot of the game, giving up opportunities that Bayern did not take.
And then Desire Doue struck. It was a goal we should have seen coming, because it was so PSG. Even Ousmane Dembele’s goal to wrap up the win came in similar circumstances.
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| Date and time | Fixture | Link | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13/07 - 20:00 | Chelsea vs PSG | Sign up here to watch | |||||
| *All times BST. | |||||||
Many times across the season — especially en route to winning the Champions League — we saw PSG kill teams on the counter. It’s a risky tactic as you’re relying on a mixture of luck and your defence holding strong. But when it works, you can’t say anything bad about it.
On another day, Bayern would have beat PSG by a few goals. Although Vincent Kompany’s men only outshot PSG by two, they were in full control of the attack. The problem for Bayern was that they weren’t able to get the shots off when in promising positions on more than one occasion.
Kingsley Coman and Michael Olise were excellent on the wings, giving Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes busy afternoons. Jamal Musiala did his work through the middle too, before having to come off after suffering a serious injury. Harry Kane tried to pull the strings, with some excellent passes, but again it was missing the final touch.
Despite their 13 shots, Bayern posted just 0.86 Expected Goals — compared to PSG’s 1.28 xG from 11 shots. Just five of Bayern’s shots hit the target, though a few of them were very tame.
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The German side also had the ball in the back of the net twice, but both times it was ruled out for offside. PSG must get credit for the first as it was their expert defending of a set-piece — keeping their line — that caught Dayot Upamecano offside for his header.
But PSG did what they do. With just under 15 minutes left to go, Kane lost possession just inside his own half after slipping. Joao Neves picked the ball up and played a lovely one-two with Achraf Hakimi. The Portuguese midfielder turned nicely in the box before finding Doue on the edge of it. And the Frenchman’s finish was low and powerful, into the bottom corner of the net. Manuel Neuer could do nothing about it.
Doue won the ‘Superior Player of the Match’ award for his goal, and it was a decent performance from the Frenchman. He had two shots with one effort on target, created one chance and completed one take-on.
But the drama wasn’t done there. Both Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez were shown straight red cards for serious fouls, throwing Bayern a lifeline. But it was PSG who would score again, through Dembele.
With Bayern pushed high up the pitch, PSG turned the ball over and broke. The first effort from Dembele hit the crossbar, and another effort was saved. But PSG retained possession and a jinking run from Hakimi set up Dembele to finish off the tie.
Across Ligue 1, the Champions League and Club World Cup, PSG have had 93 shots from counter-attacks in 2024-25. That’s more than any other team across Europe’s top five leagues. Four of those have come at the Club World Cup so far, with two against Bayern Munich. PSG have also made 106 fast breaks in 2024-25, at an average of 1.89 per game. They’ve managed 1.66 shots from fast breaks per match, with 15 goals scored in total. Only Liverpool (17) and Atletico Madrid (16) have managed more across Europe’s top five leagues.
Whoever PSG play in the semi-final will know they have a tough task on their hands if they are to stop the French side — even without Pacho and Hernandez.