Pachuca have made their way to the final of the newly-rebranded FIFA Intercontinental Cup, where they face a certain Real Madrid. Exactly two years on from the culmination of the 2022 World Cup, a new champion will be crowned at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.
By Neel Shelat
History beckons for Pachuca
This is Pachuca’s fifth appearance at a FIFA-organised international tournament. Most recently, they qualified for the 2017 Club World Cup, in which they won third place.
This time, they have managed to go at least one better by reaching their first final. Guillermo Almada’s side will be firm underdogs, but they will have the chance to become the first non-European winners of this tournament in 12 years and the very first to come from CONCACAF.
Record champions Real Madrid looking to lift another trophy
Real Madrid have more UEFA Champions League trophies in their cabinet than anyone else, so they unsurprisingly also are the record champions of the FIFA Club World Cup. They’ve won the title in each of their last five appearances – including three times in succession between 2016 and 2018. They also won the old Intercontinental Cup – the annual showdown between the European and South American club champions – thrice before it made way for the Club World Cup.
Los Blancos have been far from their best this season, but they should have more than enough quality to get the job done here. The new format makes it so that they only have to play one match instead of two, so they need just one result to make sure of avoiding their second trophyless season since 2010.
Pachuca fresh after a shortened season
Pachuca are a pretty successful club in their own right with seven Liga MX titles and six CONCACAF Champions Cup crowns to boot. Of course, they too tasted success earlier this year by winning the continental championship in the summer to qualify for this tournament, but the second half of the season went very poorly for them.
Tuzos recorded their lowest-ever finishing position in the 2024/25 Liga MX Apertura, finishing 16th of 18 teams with just 13 points.
Having failed to qualify for the Liga MX playoffs, Pachuca did not see any competitive action for a month leading up to the Intercontinental Cup. They seemed to benefit from that freshness, though, getting the better of stronger but more tired opponents in Botafogo and Al Ahly to reach this final.
A chance for Real Madrid to continue experimenting
Despite picking up an injury last week, Kylian Mbappé is fit enough to make the squad for this match. So, Carlo Ancelotti might get another opportunity to find a formula that gets the best out of him alongside attacking stars like Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham, though he has bigger issues to contend with elsewhere in the side. Defenders Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, David Alaba and Ferland Mendy are all out injured, so the Italian tactician will have to fashion a second-string back line once again.
Prediction
As is often the case in these tournaments, the gulf in squad quality is big enough for the European side to come out on top even with a subpar performance.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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