Earlier this week, the global football community was brought to a standstill following the tragic news that Liverpool striker Diogo Jota had, alongside his brother, Penafiel midfielder André Silva, died in a car crash in Spain. Jota was just 28.
Of course, this could not go unmentioned at the ongoing Club World Cup. Before all four quarterfinals, a minute’s silence was observed; in addition, before the match between Palmeiras and Chelsea, Pedro Neto, the Chelsea winger who had played alongside Jota as part of Portugal’s Euro 2024 team, entered the field holding a customized jersey with Jota and Silva’s first names on it.
There were also two further tributes by way of goal celebrations. Real Madrid’s match against Borussia Dortmund culminated in a frantic stoppage-time period featuring three goals including a spectacular bicycle kick scored by Kylian Mbappé. Following the goal, Mbappé flashed the number 20—Jota’s jersey number—with his hands in front of the pitchside camera. Real would go on to win 3-2.
In the earlier quarterfinal, Paris Saint-Germain beat Bayern Munich 2-0 to advance to the semifinals despite having both Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernández sent off late in the match. Ballon d’Or candidate Ousmane Dembélé scored PSG’s second goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time before mimicking Jota’s signature goal celebration - a reference to Jota’s love of the FIFA video games.
Now certainly, before we get into the discussion of the PSG vs Bayern match itself, it should go without saying that given this shocking turn of events, the actual on-field result as well as much of what I’ll be going into isn’t even close to the most important thing right now. RIP Diogo Jota and André Silva.
As for the actual match, the quarterfinal held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was relatively balanced; no team was able to gain a clear advantage and the match remained goalless at half-time. There was, however, an ugly moment when Bayern midfielder Jamal Musiala suffered a major injury after a collision with PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. It would later be found that Musiala had fractured his fibula and will be out for approximately four to five months.
It wouldn’t be until the 78th minute when PSG would break the deadlock. Désiré Doué sent his shot from just outside the penalty area into the bottom corner of the net to put PSG a goal ahead. However, things would soon turn for the worse for PSG; just four minutes later, Ecuadorian centre-back Pacho would receive a red card following a reckless challenge on Leon Goretzka.
PSG were able to hang on to their lead heading into stoppage time; however, early into the additional minutes, the Parisian club would lose yet another player. Left-back Hernández would be PSG’s second player to receive his marching orders after elbowing Bayern substitute Raphaël Guerreiro, forcing PSG to finish the match two players down.
In one final twist, though, PSG were undeterred by this and went on to score a second goal to seal the victory - the aforementioned goal which Dembélé scored. It was a first-time shot after the Frenchman was set up by Achraf Hakimi. This would mean that PSG would go on to play against Real in the semifinal to be played at MetLife Stadium.
Going back to the earlier points made, it has to be noted that PSG have four Portuguese players on their team including three who are regular starters: Nuno Mendes, João Neves, and Vitinha. It could absolutely have been the case - in fact, it was more than likely - that the three of them were spurred on by the thought of “winning it for Diogo”.
With Liverpool not in the Club World Cup, PSG now find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being the sentimental favorites because of the new narrative that has so tragically arisen. There couldn’t be a more apt way to cap off this tournament than, being led by their Portuguese trio, PSG following up their historic Champions League title with a Club World Cup triumph in memory of Diogo Jota.
As cliché as it may sound, sometimes “playing for a cause bigger than oneself” unlocks a level of play that might previously not have seemed attainable - and for all we know, that might soon be what Paris Saint-Germain will experience