Chelsea and Manchester City will be knocked out of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup by the same shock opponent, a Supercomputer has projected.
The revamped and expanded tournament kicks-off in the USA on Sunday, with the Premier League represented by the Blues and the Citizens after they won the Champions League in 2021 and 2023.
Both English sides won the Club World Cup in its previous format but this will be a very different kettle of fish, with 32 teams hoping to reach the final in New Jersey on July 13.
Real Madrid and PSG are the bookies favourites but a Supercomputer conducted by BoyleSports, who offer the latest Club World Cup odds, surprisingly predicts a different European team will emerge victorious.
In its prediction, both Premier League sides are predicted to make it through the group stage but not as group winners.
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Despite getting a favourable draw in Group D, Chelsea will finish behind African club Esperance de Tunis but ahead of MLS side Los Angeles FC and Flamengo of Brazil.
As for City, they will beat Morocco’s Wydad AC and Al Ain from the UAE, but finish behind Italian giants Juventus in Group G.
Into the knockout stage and City are predicted to navigate an incredibly different run of fixtures to make the final, defeating Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Juventus.
But Chelsea’s tournament comes to an abrupt end as they after knocked out 3-1 by Benfica and it is the Portuguese side who advance to the final after also beating Porto and Bayern Munich.
The Citizens would surely to be favourites to win such a final but the supercomputer predicts a shock upset, with Benfica winning 2-1 to be crowned champions of the world.
This projection is a huge surprise given that Benfica have won just one Primeira Liga title in the last five years and their last European trophy came way back in 1962.
Bruno Lage’s side qualified for the Club World Cup as the seventh-best ranked eligible team in the UEFA four-year ranking.
Chelsea and Man City’s Club World Cup fixtures
Chelsea vs Los Angeles (June 16, 8pm, Atlanta)
Man City vs Wydad (June 18, 5pm, Philadelphia)
Flamengo vs Chelsea (June 20, 7pm, Philadelphia)
Man City vs Al Ain (June 23, 2am, Atlanta)
ES Tunis vs Chelsea (June 25, 2am, Philadelphia)
Juventus vs Man City (June 26, 8pm, Orlando)
They kick-off their tournament against Boca Juniors on June 16 before taking on Auckland City and Bayern Munich in a tough Group C.
According to BoyleSports: ‘The Club World Cup Supercomputer is a probability model, not determined by human predictions or bias.
‘What happens is the Supercomputer estimates the outcome of each remaining fixture based on a team’s current strength (based on factors such as league position and form) and betting market odds.
‘The machine then simulates the remaining games in a season 10,000 times and constructs an average league table from the 10,000 simulations, to rule out anomalous results.’
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