Cole Palmer lauded Enzo Maresca for “building something special” after Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain to win the Club World Cup.
Chelsea blew PSG away by a 3-0 scoreline thanks to a stunning first-half performance, with Palmer stealing the show.
He netted twice in eight minutes before setting Joao Pedro up for their third on the stroke of half-time, and Chelsea held off PSG’s attempts at a second-half comeback, which was then effectively ended when Joao Neves was shown a straight red card for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair.
Chelsea are the fifth team, and the first from England, to win multiple Club World Cup titles (including previous formats), joining Real Madrid (six), Barcelona (three), Bayern Munich and Corinthians (both two).
The Blues have also won each of their last six European or international finals (excluding Super Cups), dating back to 2013.
And Palmer, who is the third Chelsea player to score multiple goals in a final this century after Didier Drogba (twice) and Eden Hazard, is excited about what Maresca’s side have in store for their future.
“It’s a great feeling. Even better, because everyone doubted us before the game, we knew that. To put a fight on like we did, it’s good,” Palmer told DAZN.
“The gaffer put a great gameplan out. He knew where the space was going to be. He tried to free me up as much as possible, and I just had to repay him and score some goals.
“He is building something special, something important. Everyone has talked a lot of s*** about us all season, but I feel like we are going in the right direction.”
Chelsea dominated the first half, scoring with all three of their shots on target, while limiting PSG to just two attempts.
They eventually finished the match with 2.1 expected goals (xG) to PSG’s 0.5, with Robert Sanchez making six saves as Luis Enrique’s side finished with more efforts on target (Chelsea had five).
“I have no words for the players. They all deserve this, and it’s a good moment,” Maresca told DAZN.
“For me, we won the game in the first 10 minutes. We set the tempo, and we were very good at pressing them. The conditions made it hard to keep going, but the boys did well.
“Of course, I am very excited [about the future], but I’m more excited that we have three weeks off.”
