We preview
this quarter-final match at the 2025 FIFA Club
World Cup with our Palmeiras vs Chelsea prediction. Which club
will progress to the semis and move closer to
glory?
Palmeiras vs Chelsea Stats: The Key
Insights
Chelsea are the Opta
supercomputer‘s favourites to progress from this tie (74.8%),
and also the most likely side to win the tournament ahead of the
quarter-finals (26.8%).
Brazilian clubs have defeated European teams at the 2025 FIFA
Club World Cup more often (3) than they have lost against them
(2).
Pedro Neto has scored in three consecutive Chelsea appearances
for the first time in his career.
After Manchester City’s exit in the last round, Chelsea
are the Premier League’s only remaining club at the 2025 FIFA Club
World Cup. What’s more, Man City’s exit to Al-Hilal along with
Inter’s defeat to Fluminense have opened up Chelsea’s half of the
draw and, on paper, made their route to the final a potentially
simpler task.
But we know football isn’t played on paper, and as Brazilian
clubs have proved so far at this tournament, they are no pushovers.
In beating Inter on Monday, Fluminense sealed a third victory for
Brazilian clubs against European opposition at the FIFA Club World
Cup – one more than they’ve lost (2).
Palmeiras will be looking to take that tally of wins to four on
Friday as they face Chelsea at Lincoln Financial Field in
Philadelphia with a place in the semi-finals on the line.
This will be the second meeting between Palmeiras and Chelsea,
with the Blues winning the final of the 2021 Club World Cup (2-1
after extra time), but the Brazilian side could be a much harder
proposition this time around. Their 1-0 extra-time win over
Botafogo in the last round was their 10th clean sheet in their last
14 matches in all competitions, a run dating back to 30 April.
Chelsea only have to look back to the group stage to remember
how difficult a Brazilian opponent can be, as they lost 3-1 to
Flamengo despite taking the lead through Pedro
Neto.
Neto has been one of Chelsea’s best players at the Club World
Cup, with the Portuguese winger heading into this match having
scored in three consecutive matches for the first time in his
senior club career. Before this run, he’d scored only three goals
in his previous 30 appearances in all competitions for the English
club.
Moisés
Caicedo has also impressed at this tournament and leads all
Chelsea players for regaining possession from opponents (20),
tackles made (12) and duels won (22). He will be missing for this
game, however, after his second yellow card of the Club World Cup
in the 4-1 victory over Benfica. Another player who will miss out
is
Benoît Badiashile after he was injured in that clash against
the Portuguese side, but Enzo Maresca will welcome back Nicolas
Jackson after serving a two-match ban.
João
Pedro, who signed from Brighton on Wednesday for a reported fee
of £60m, is expected to go straight into the Chelsea squad for this
game and could make his debut.
Palmeiras will be missing captain Gustavo Gómez through
suspension following his red card in the last round against
Botofogo, while Joaquín Piquerez is also suspended after picking up
his second caution of the tournament in that win.
Estêvão will be a player that Chelsea fans will have a close eye
on in this match, not just because of the threat he poses to the
Premier League side in this game, but also because he’ll join the
English club after this tournament. No Palmeiras player has been
involved in as many open-play sequences (16) or as many shots at
this tournament as he has (16 – 8 shots, 8 chances created), so
expect him to cause his future side some problems.
Palmeiras vs Chelsea
Prediction
Chelsea are strong favourites to knock out Palmeiras and
advance to the semi-finals of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup,
according to the Opta supercomputer.
The Blues progressed to the next round in 74.8% of the
supercomputer sims – more than any other side in the last eight of
the competition. They made it to the final four inside 90 minutes
64.8% of the time, while Palmeiras won in normal time in 15.3% of
the 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Including the possibility of extra-time and a penalty shootout,
the Brazilians advanced to the semis just 25.2% of the time.
Palmeiras vs Chelsea Squads
Palmeiras
Mateus, Marcos Rocha, Bruno Fuchs, Agustín Giay, Aníbal Moreno,
Vanderlan, Felipe Anderson, Richard Ríos, Vitor Roque, Paulinho,
Mayke, Micael, Marcelo Lomba, Gustavo Gómez, Facundo Torres,
Mauricio, Weverton, Joaquín Piquerez, Raphael Veiga, Murilo, Lucas
Evangelista, Luighi, Emiliano Martínez, Kaiky Naves, Thalys, Allan,
Estêvão, José Manuel López, Luiz Benedetti.
Head Coach: Abel Ferreira
Chelsea
Robert Sánchez, Marc Cucurella, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoît
Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernández, Liam Delap,
Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Filip Jörgensen, Dário Essugo, Nicolas
Jackson, Andrey Santos, Christopher Nkunku, Mamadou Sarr, Kiernan
Dewsbury-Hall, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Moisés Caicedo, Malo
Gusto, Aarón Anselmino, Tyrique George, Josh Acheampong, Marc Guiu,
Mike Penders, Gabriel Slonina, Roméo Lavia.
Head Coach: Enzo Maresca
Opta
Power Rankings
The Opta
Power Rankings are a global team ranking system.
They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football
teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is
the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the
world.
Ahead of kick-off, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both
sides.
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