Trent Alexander-Arnold, Real Madrid’s 26-year-old right-back, spoke to FIFA about the Club World Cup semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain this Wednesday in New York (9pm CET, broadcast on DAZN). The former Liverpool man recalls the level of the Parisians in this season’s Champions League Round of 8, and looks forward to the encounter.
Alexander-Arnold “they both deserve to be there.”
“I played against PSG this season and they were exceptional. Of course, it’s going to be a tough match. Both teams are in the semi-finals and they both deserve to be there. But in the knockout phase, anyone can beat anyone. We’re going to work hard to recover and get ready for a tough match. We’ll see who the better team is.”
The English full-back has fond memories of his games against PSG, who impressed the whole of Europe at the time and needed only efficiency in the first leg to seal a possibly exceptional victory. The return leg was more evenly matched, but Paris always had a real answer for the Reds, one of the big favourites going into this 8th final.
So Alexander-Arnorld knows just how much to be wary of this team, even if they may have a little less energy today. However, he does not forget to point out that Real Madrid also have something to say. It would be very bad form on the Madrid side if the defender didn’t show confidence.
In any case, his comments are quite accurate. No team gets to the semi-finals of a competition by chance. There are arguments for qualifying. Everything can happen very quickly in a knockout match. So we’re going to need a great collective performance, and maybe a bit of success.
