2025 Club World Cup

PSG:

PSG are in incredible form coming into this tournament, winning each of their last five matches - including the 5-0 demolition of Inter in the UCL final. Paddy Power has them as second favourites to win the trophy behind Real Madrid.

They find themselves in Group B with Atletico Madrid, Botafogo and Seattle Sounders where they should breeze past the latter two sides into to the knockout rounds.

The winner of Group B will face the runner up in Group A, and vice versa. With Group A being one of the weakest on paper in the entire tournament, if PSG do progress they'll face one of Palmeiras, Porto, Inter Miami or Al Ahly.

None of which should be able to deal with the firepower of the recently crowned European Champions.

Atletico Madrid:

Diego Simeone’s side have had a tough season finishing third in LaLiga, reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League where they were knocked out by Real Madrid and the semi finals of the Copa Del Rey where they were knocked out by Barcelona.

But I'm expecting them to finish second in Group B behind PSG, as it's safe to say there is a gulf in quality between themselves, Botafogo and Seattle Sounders.

As mentioned previously, should they progress they would likely face one of Palmeiras or Porto where they would be favourites to win.

Porto are coming off the back of an underwhelming season where they finished third in the league and exited the Europa League in the play-off round. Whilst Palmeiras, despite boasting some exciting young talent, should be no match for Atletico.

Dortmund:

Dortmund are priced heavily odds on at 1.44 to top Group F. It's no surprise either, with Fluminense, Mamelodi Sundowns and Ulsan HD making up the other three teams.

For context, Fluminense finished 13th of 20 teams in the Brazilian Serie A last season, and are the second favourites to top the group. Mamelodi Sundowns won the South African league, and Ulsan HD are currently sat 3rd in the South Korean K League.

If Dortmund top the group, they'll face 2nd place in Group E. This will be either Inter, River Plate, Monterrey or Urawa Red Diamonds. Inter are priced 1.36 to win the group, and should do comfortably, meaning Dortmund will likely be against River Plate.

River Plate finished 2nd across their opening 16 domestic games, winning just half of these matches. When playing away, they won just two of seven matches.

Chelsea:

Chelsea ended their season strongly winning the Conference League final against Betis whilst claiming top 4 in the Premier League. They're priced at 1.53 to top Group D, where they're accompanied by Flamengo, LAFC and ES Tunis.

Flamengo are currently top in the Brazilian Série A, LAFC are 5th in the MLS Western Conference and ES Tunis are top in the Tunisian Ligue 1. All of these sides will make be making their case to get out of the group, but I see Chelsea topping it especially with the addition of Liam Delap who will be keen to impress.

Should Chelsea top Group D, they'll face 2nd place in Group C which is made up of Bayern, Benfica, Boca Juniors and Auckland City. Bayern are the strong favourites to win their group, which means Chelsea will likely face Benfica or even Boca Juniors.

Either could prove be a tough game for Maresca's side, but their recent strong form of eight wins in their last nine matches suggests they're coming into the tournament high in confidence, which should see them reach the quarter finals of the competition.

Kane to score 6+ goals:

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Kane halves his required six goals in Bayern's first game. They're 1/100 to win v Auckland and are odds-on to score at least five goals. Kane is also odds-on to score a brace.

Kane is consistently around a goal per game. He scored 38 goals in 46 matches across all competitions last season averaging 0.96 goals per 90 minutes.

Bayern should breeze through the early stages with their toughest test likely to be Chelsea in the quarter-finals which would be their fifth game.

Mbappe to score 5+ goals:

If you put £1 on Real Madrid to win their group, you get £1.01 back. That's the level of opposition that they and Mbappe are going to face.

They're favourites to win the entire competition, and group stage matches against Al-Hilal, Pachuca and Salzburg are a chance to get firing early doors.

Mbappe scored 31 goals in 34 appearances for Real Madrid last season and I expect him to take a chunk out of the five goals needed before the knockout stages.

Haaland to score 4+ goals:

Man City are second favourites to reach the final, meaning they'd play seven games in total.

Haaland scored eight goals across his nine UCL games, including matches against Real Madrid and PSG. He'll be up against UAE's Al-Ain and Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca in the group stage here.

He's scored in each of his last two international games, and is coming into the tournament on goalscoring form.

Guirassy to score 3+ goals:

Guirassy managed 13 goals in last season's Champions League campaign, averaging more than a goal per game.

His domestic record was also strong, scoring 21 goals across the season. This record includes a goal in each of the last five Bundesliga matches, showing he ended the season on good form.

Dortmund have a favourable run and I'd expect them to reach the QFs at least. They'll be facing teams below the standard in UCL and Bundesliga, where Guirassy has already proved himself.