Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish midfielder #08 Fabian Ruiz (L) celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semifinal football match between France's Paris Saint-Germain and Spain's Real Madrid at the MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 9, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
New Jersey: Fabian Ruiz scored twice as European champions Paris Saint-Germain turned on the style in their reunion with Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday, thrashing Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup to set up a final showdown with Chelsea.
Ruiz and Ousmane Dembele scored inside the opening nine minutes to stun Real and silence the majority of the 77,542 crowd who were wearing white at the MetLife Stadium outside New York.
The Spanish midfielder added another before half-time and Goncalo Ramos got a late fourth as Luis Enrique's side moved one game away from glory at FIFA's new tournament.
Victory against Chelsea on Sunday would complete a campaign of unparalleled success for the Parisians, who won the French title and then the first UEFA Champions League in their history in May.
After blowing away Inter Milan 5-0, the biggest victory in European 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. PSG's fluidity contrasted starkly with Madrid, who are a work in progress under new coach Xabi Alonso.
Meanwhile Mbappe struggled to make any impact on his first start at the tournament and in his first game against PSG since leaving the French club a year ago.
The France captain was hoping for a diferent outcome against the team for whom he scored a club record 256 goals, and the defeat is a real blow to Real as they hoped to win the first 32- team Club World Cup to add to their record tally of 15 European Cups.
But PSG have improved without Mbappe and are now such a well-oiled machine that they appear unstoppable -- it would be a big surprise if they failed to beat Chelsea.
Luis Enrique was without imposing centre-back Willian Pacho due to suspension following his sending-of against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, but that did not matter.
