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PASADENA — The champions are looking to stay the champions.
Paris Saint-Germain, who won the UEFA Champions League to cap their season earlier this month, kicked off the FIFA Club World Cup in strong fashion Sunday at the Rose Bowl in front of 80,619.
PSG, one of the favorites to win the first 32-team, expanded version of the tournament, continued its dominance with a 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in Group B.
“I don’t have a single doubt, we’re the favorites to win the tournament,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “Perhaps the result was too big, but we deserved to win.
“It’s a long season, but we’re happy with the match ….the conditions are difficult with the heat, but the goal is to keep the same energy.”
This was the first of six games to be played at the Rose Bowl in group stage.
To incentivize teams to compete, especially after a long club season for European clubs, FIFA has created a wage scale that even pays $1 million for a draw in a group stage game. Any win in the group stage earns teams $2 million.
PSG didn’t appear to need any extra motivation.
Fabian Ruiz opened the scoring in the 19th minute and early into first-half stoppage time, Vitinha made it 2-0. Vitinha’s goal came moments after Atletico Madrid nearly opened its scoring account, Antoine Griezmann’s attempt was smothered by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The expanded tournament is the creation of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The old version consisted of champions from the different confederations around the world.
“For the first time in history, the 32 best clubs in the world will compete in a tournament to determine finally who is the best club in the world,” he said at a pre-tournament event. “The winner can win up to $125 million, so this is of course very, very significant. But it’s about the glory, as well, of writing your name, the name of the winning club and of all the participating clubs, writing your name in history.”
Atletico scored just before the 60th-minute mark on a clean finish by Julian Alvarez. However, the goal was disallowed after a video review check due to a foul on Atletico in the build-up.
“At 2-0, VAR called the referee when we scored,” Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone said through translation. “He had let the play continue. The details are obvious. They ruled out our goal and then Lenglet was sent off. I get tired of talking about the referees because then I look like a victim.”
From there, things snowballed for Diego Simeone’s men. Atletico went down to 10 men on Clement Lenglet’s second yellow card in the 76th minute. In all, Atletico received seven yellow cards.
Ten minutes later, PSG put the game firmly away on Senny Mayulu’s goal for a 3-0 lead. Lee Kang-in capped the day with a successful penalty kick deep into stoppage time.
“With a 4-0 result, you can’t really complain about some things,” Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “We have to keep our heads up and do better.”
The teams met last November in the league phase play in the UEFA Champions League, with Atletico winning 2-1 thanks to a stoppage time goal by Angel Correa.
Atletico finished its domestic season in third place, behind Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain’s La Liga.
PSG returns to action, Thursday, also at the Rose Bowl against Botafogo of Brazil. Atletico moves to Seattle for its second group stage game, facing the Seattle Sounders.
“It was a very tough opponent to play against,” PSG’s captain Marquinhos said. “But our team showed its strength again.”
PSG played without its star midfielder Ousmane Dembele due to a hamstring injury.
