Chelsea Prevail In the Battle for the FIFA Club World Cup

By: Zafir Kamdar, Staff Reporter, The Pawprint

In February, the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud brought together the world’s best clubs to battle for the most prestigious title in club football. Matches commenced on the 3rd of February, with the final on the 12th.

In Abu Dhabi, eight matches were hosted at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium and Al Nahyan Stadium. Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium featured both the opening and final matches.
Fans of football joined the club and participated in the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021.

Many world-class teams such as champions league winners Chelsea and Egyptian infamous club Al Ahly SC. The clubs that participated consisted of Al Hilal SFC, Al Ahly SC, Al Jazira Club, As Prae, CF Monterrey, Chelsea FC, and SE Palmeiras. The ten-day tournament had eight matches hosted to decide who won the cup. 

On February 3rd the first match commenced between Al Jazira and Pirae. At the end of the 90 minutes, Al Jazira scored four while Pirae only scored one. 
In the second round, AL Ahly and Monterrey faced off with a result of Al Ahly winning by a small margin of one-nil. While the Egyptian Giants Al-Hilal scored a whopping six goals while Al Jazira scored a mere one.

In the Semi-Finals Palmeiras faced Al Ahly. Al Ahly received a red card in the second half and Palmeiras took advantage and took the win with two goals. 

The second Semi-Final took place on February ninth between the European super club Chelsea and Al Hilal. Chelsea were the favourites and they won in style. With the controversial Romeo Lukaku scoring the first and only goal for the night in the thirty-fifth minute of the game. Al Hilal tried their best to get the game level again however they were unsuccessful and the European favourites went through to the finals against Palmeiras.      

The Belgium striker Lukaku scored Chelsea’s first for the night in the 54 minutes. But the South American champions responded with a goal ten minutes later. With the game all level the game went into injury time where Chelsea’s savour Kai Havertz scored in the 117th minute Making Chelsea the Champions of the Tournament. 

After 2 weeks of football and seven clubs clashing for the cup, Chelsea was victorious.