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Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain looked like bitter rivals by the end of the FIFA Club World Cup final on Sunday after the Premier League club toppled the French club in a 3-0 victory.
But after the whistle sounded, the action didn’t stop, with PSG coach Luis Enrique pushing João Pedro amid a scrum that was already occurring at MetLife Stadium.
Pedro went to the ground, drawing more players into the post-match shenanigans and creating a pushing and shoving match before cooler heads eventually prevailed.
Pedro had been engaged in a verbal confrontation with another PSG player when Enrique entered the fray and shoved the Chelsea player.
PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who also appeared to shove Pedro, was caught in the middle of the incident and was grabbed by a team staffer to try and protect him as other Chelsea players came to Pedro’s defense.
Prior to Sunday, Chelsea and PSG had played a total of 10 times across all competitions and had not played one another since 2016.
The Club World Cup final took place at MetLife Stadium in front of a largely pro-Chelsea crowd of over 81,000 people.
The win was a surprise with PSG entering the match as the favorite after having defeated some of soccer’s best clubs, including Atlético Madrid, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Tensions had already been a bit high during the physical match and in the second half, PSG midfielder João Neves was given a red card when he pulled the hair of Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella in a retaliatory move.
Chelsea defeated PSG with a pair of goals by star Cole Palmer – in the 22nd and 30th minutes – while Pedro also scored in the later part of the first half.
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