Online Reporter
Chelsea striker Joao Pedro said Paris St-Germain “lost their heads” in the aftermath of Sunday’s Club World Cup final.
The Brazil forward, 23, ended up on the floor during an incident involving PSG manager Luis Enrique, as tempers flared between the two sides following Chelsea’s 3-0 victory at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Luis Enrique said afterwards those scenes were the “result of the pressure of the match” and that his “intention was to separate the footballers so the situation didn’t become worse”.
Joao Pedro, who scored Chelsea’s third goal, said: “I don’t need to talk about them. Everyone wants to win the game and, in the end, I think they lost their heads.
“But this is football. This has happened. Now we need to enjoy it because we won the tournament, that’s it.
“I don’t want to talk too much about them because you know how it works. Football is this.”
The confrontations at full-time came after PSG’s Joao Neves was sent off in the closing minutes for pulling the hair of Chelsea full-back Marc Cucurella.
Luis Enrique, whose side were bidding to follow up their domestic treble and Champions League victory in 2024-25 with Club World Cup success, said: “I have no problem expressing my feelings at the end of the game in a high level of pressure. It’s very stressful for all of us. It is going to be impossible to avoid that.
“Everybody was involved. It was not what was best and the end result of the pressure of the match.
“I have seen [Chelsea manager Enzo] Maresca. I saw he had pushed others and we had to separate all the players and I do not know where that pressure came from.
“But this is a situation we must all avoid, that goes without saying. My intention was to separate the footballers so the situation didn’t become worse.”
Joao Pedro’s dinked 43rd-minute finish added to two earlier strikes from Cole Palmer as Chelsea won the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup.
BBC Sport / Zimpapers Sports Hub
