The underlying narratives for each Club World Cup Quarterfinal
Forget the tactics and the stats. What are the storylines?
It is often said that sports are the best soap opera on television. The pure drama is the backdrop for what unfolds on the pitch, and the Club World Cup has proven this time and time again.
In a grand sense, this competition has lived up to its name. There is passion and each player seems to have a sense of pride for their club, country and region. It truly feels like a World Cup for clubs and not a friendly/pre-season tournament.
The competitiveness is evident. Whether it comes out as Joshua Kimmich celebrating a Manuel Neur save like it was a goal, or the scuffles between Inter and Fluminense, or the tears from both winners and losers, it cannot be denied — everybody cares.
And now we are left with eight teams. All of them can realistically win the trophy. The biggest narrative that has persisted is whether or not European clubs are so far ahead of the rest of the world. It seems as if they aren’t. We started with 12 UEFA teams and we are left with five. One side of the bracket has four of them, while the other only has Chelsea. This will be the ultimate test if the Brazilians, and Al Hilal, can upend the status quo in football.
But each match comes with its own intrigue. I love to talk about how teams’ playstyles clash, which players can make the difference and ultimately where games will be decided. However, I also love to discuss what makes the match interesting to the average person. What is fueling each game? That is what I will attempt to breakdown.
A note: I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Diogo Jota and his brother, André Silva, in a car accident this morning. The Liverpool star had so much of his life in front of him, and was on top of the world. He had just won two trophies and, most importantly, married the mother of his children and the love of his life. I hope Diogo and André are resting well. Two young souls, gone too soon.
Palmeiras vs Chelsea
There may not be a more gift-wrapped storyline than the one we have in this match. I didn’t have to search for it, and rather the narrative was what birthed the idea for this article.
Palmeiras’ wonderkid, Estêvão, is leaving the club at the conclusion of the CWC. This could potentially be the Brazilian’s final time wearing the green and white. Funnily enough the team he is joining, you guessed it, is Chelsea football club.
Imagine the pressure on this kid. He could send his side to the semifinals while banishing his future teammates out entirely. It is both an audition in front of Enzo Maresca, where a good match could convince the Chelsea manager to start Estêvão this next season, as well as a send off performance to his boyhood club. All eyes will be on the 18-year-old.
There are also some less obvious, yet extremely exciting, stories as well. Palmeiras could confirm that a non-European team will make the final with a win. They shoulder the biggest burden, as of now, to uplift South American football.
This game is also a rematch of the 2021 CWC final, when the tournament had far fewer teams. Chelsea had to wait until the 117th minute to grab their second goal, and ultimately a 2-1 win.
Palmeiras are out for revenge. Chelsea are trying to prove they are still a power in world football. Palmeiras fans will have control of Lincoln Financial Field, but Chelsea are well supported in the US. Genuinely, you won’t be able to look away from this one.
Fluminense vs Al Hilal
I will be 100% honest. After Fluminense beat Inter Milan 2-0, I started writing out notes about their matchup with Manchester City. I was so confident that City would decimate Al Hilal (I predicted a 5-1 win), that I didn’t wait to see the results of that match before creating a rough draft for this post.
That led me to write, “SCRAP IT ALL!!!! AL HILAL WIN!!!” in my notes after their immaculate 4-3 victory in Orlando. I had written about David vs Goliath, but now we are left with two Davids — though Al Hilal is looking a lot like Goliath right now.
Two Cinderellas. Two underdogs. That is probably a good enough narrative to make people watch. The winner will go to the semifinals and I’d give them a great shot to make it to the final. But there is more than meets the eye.
For one, this feels like a battle between real football culture and something disguised as authentic but it is rather billions of dollars masquerading as something deeply entrenched in the roots of a club.
Maybe I am wrong, but it feels like Al Hilal wants to buy the sport. They consistently spend $300 million each window and it has led to a lot of domestic, continental and, now, worldwide success. But it feels wrong. The sportswashing that a lot of immoral regimes do is prevalent in many European leagues, especially the Premier League. I’m not acting as if Al Hilal is the only culprit of this. However, the fact this club is at home and not abroad makes it different. When you are run fully by an authoritarian, absolute monarchy regime… it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
On the other side, Fluminense are a club bred out of a pure love for the game. In Brazil, football is as essential as eating and breathing. You can see it in the passion their fans bring to each match. This is Thiago Silva’s boyhood club, which he came back to at age 40 and is now leading through this tournament. You could see how much it meant to him after the win versus Inter. He has seen and won it all and yet he was in tears on the floor.
Past all of that, I have to realize that both teams have played a massive role in throwing the CWC into a frenzy. Without them, we’d have seven European sides left. No matter who wins, they’ve each done a service to the sport.
The last storyline comes from the sidelines. The battle of the coaches has caught my attention. For Al Hilal, they have Simone Inzaghi. He just left Inter before this tournament and now has a chance to beat the club his former side lost to.
For Fluminense, they have Renato Gaúcho. He has lived and breathed Brazilian football his entire life, only ever leaving as a player or a manager for one season. This is his chance to lead his club to the highest heights and put his nation on a pedestal once again. And I must ask the question: Is this tournament finally reversing the wounds that the 7-1 loss to Germany did to Brazilian football? I believe it is.
PSG vs Bayern Munich
If you want a heavyweight battle, then this is the perfect game. I have spent a lot of this tournament hyping up Brazilian clubs and kinda putting European clubs down. But any football fan should be excited for this match. It will be filled with goals and quality and it could be an instant classic.
This is a rematch of the 2020 Champions League final, where Bayern won 1-0. That was in an empty stadium during COVID, and since then a lot has changed. It’s the third time these two teams have faced off in a knockout round since then. Their most recent match was this season in the UCL group stage where Bayern also won.
What interests me is that, for probably the first time in these two clubs’ history of competing against each other, PSG is favored in this match. They are the reigning UCL champions and, other than a rough loss to Botafogo, have destroyed all challengers in the past six months. Their last loss to a European side was against Strasbourg when they rested the team. Their last two matches against European opponents ended 5-0 and 4-0.
Normally PSG are the laughing stock of Europe but no longer is that the case. Bayern, who are rarely the underdogs, have their work cut out for them.
A big talking point before, and during, the tournament has been whether or not clubs like PSG and Bayern care. I’m here to tell you — they care, they care so much. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be professional footballers. I expect a lot of passion in this game because the winner has probably the best chance to win it all.
Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund
And, lastly, we have another UCL final rematch — although it is entirely more recent (2024). Madrid took that one 2-0, although Dortmund were the better side for much of the game and should have won it. Now they have a chance for revenge, potentially setting up a date with their biggest rivals Bayern.
We would have been treated to a brotherly affair between the Bellingham boys; however, Jobe Bellingham received a yellow card against Monterrey meaning he is suspended for this match. Get ready for a million camera pans to him on the sideline whenever Jude does anything of note.
The CWC represents a chance for Real Madrid to save their season. Being beaten to every trophy in Spain by rivals FC Barcelona, and losing to Arsenal in the UCL, Los Blancos cannot afford a loss in the quarterfinals to Dortmund. This is also a chance for Xabi Alonso to prove early on that he can lead Madrid back to the top.
My name is Caleb Otte. I am a student journalist at Chapman University who works for The Panther Newspaper. To learn more about me, you can look at, well, my about page. Peace.