The FIFA Club World Cup 2025, an international tournament featuring the reigning champions of each continental football confederation, came to a thrilling end on July 13 with Chelsea securing a commanding 3-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the final. The match saw standout performances, capping off Chelsea’s dominant run in the competition.

The road to the final was packed with drama: in the quarter-finals on July 4 and 5, Chelsea edged past Palmeiras 2-1, PSG eliminated Bayern Munich in a tense clash that also saw a horrific injury to Jamal Musiala, Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund, and Fluminense knocked out Al-Hilal. The semi-finals on July 8 and 9 brought further excitement as Chelsea beat Fluminense 2-0, while PSG stunned Real Madrid with a resounding 4-0 win.

This analysis takes a focused look at how the event played out in the UK’s mobile Google News Boxes, examining which keywords dominated the rankings and which news publishers gained the most visibility during the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. With Chelsea ultimately winning the tournament, UK publishers had a particularly strong editorial incentive to capture search demand.

We used the Trisolute News Dashboard to track all relevant keywords and publisher visibility in 15-minute intervals across the full knockout phase. The article is divided into two parts:

1. Keyword performance: We’ll explore which search terms made it into the News Boxes and how frequently they ranked, identifying key themes, matchups, and player-driven trends.

2. Publisher performance: We’ll highlight which news outlets dominated visibility during the key moments of the tournament and which stories brought them to the top.

This article provides valuable insights into what resonated with audiences, which content strategies paid off, and how newsrooms can plan for future major sports events.

Keyword trends from the knockout stage

This list contains the keywords that generated rankings in UK mobile News Boxes in the period from 4 to 13 July and were thematically related to the quarter finals, the semi-finals, or the final of the Club World Cup. The keywords are sorted in descending order according to the number of rankings. The ranking values in brackets after the keywords represent the number of different appearances on a 15-minute basis in the mobile News Boxes.

A total of 41 keywords were measured in the period under review from 4 to 13 July, which generated 9,839 rankings. Here are some interesting patterns that can be recognised when exterminating the list:

Interesting patterns

Strong focus on individual matches

A large portion of the keyword visibility during the Club World Cup 2025 in the UK News Boxes was driven by searches related to specific matchups. In total, ten keywords directly referenced individual games, and together these accounted for more than 4,200 rankings. The most visible matchup was PSG vs Real Madrid with 1,090 rankings, followed by PSG vs Bayern (710), Real Madrid vs Dortmund (674), and Fluminense vs Chelsea (524). These were some of the most high-profile clashes of the tournament and clearly drew significant attention.

Chelsea as the main focal point for UK News Boxes

From a UK perspective, Chelsea clearly dominated visibility in the News Boxes. The club featured in a wide variety of keyword combinations, ranging from the general (such as “chelsea” with 1,000 rankings) to specific match references like “palmeiras vs chelsea” and “chelsea vs fluminense.” Combined, Chelsea-related keywords generated over 2,600 rankings. The team’s success in the tournament, along with strong local interest, likely contributed to this pattern. Even individual players were pulled into the spotlight through keywords like “chelsea cole palmer” and “chelsea pedro,” while terms like “chelsea blues” and “blues club world cup final” reflect how publishers used familiar fan terminology in their headlines.

PSG with strong cross-match visibility

PSG appeared in several of the most ranked keyword combinations and emerged as one of the most frequently mentioned non-UK teams. Their involvement in high-profile matches against both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, as well as them playing Chelsea in the tournament’s final, helped drive this visibility. Altogether, PSG was part of six different keyword phrases, including “psg vs real madrid” and “psg vs bayern,” totaling over 2,400 rankings. This strong showing was further reinforced by general keywords like “psg” and more targeted pairings such as “chelsea vs psg.”

Real Madrid’s visibility driven by high-stake games

Real Madrid appeared frequently in the rankings, largely due to their involvement in marquee matches such as the quarterfinal against Dortmund and the semi-final against PSG. Keywords like “psg vs real madrid,” “real madrid vs dortmund,” and “real madrid psg” accounted for a combined total of more than 1,800 rankings. Although the generic “real madrid” keyword had a lower count on its own, the club’s inclusion in multiple high-stakes games ensured strong overall visibility. Additional keywords like “real madrid live” and “real madrid club world cup” also contributed to their presence, though with smaller volumes.

Jamal Musiala’s injury as a key topic

One of the most striking patterns in the keyword data is the high visibility of Jamal Musiala and his injury. Despite not representing a UK team, “musiala” was the single most visible keyword overall, appearing 1,336 times. Combined with related terms like “jamal musiala,” “jamal musiala injury,” and “musiala injury,” the topic accounted for more than 1,900 keyword rankings. His horrific injury during the PSG vs Bayern match sparked a lot of international coverage and concern.

Event-level and thematic keywords remain secondary

More general keywords related to the event itself, such as “club world cup” or “club world cup final,” saw fewer rankings than match-specific or player-focused terms. These keywords contributed to visibility, but they did not dominate the space in the same way that the names of clubs or players did. For example, “club world cup final” recorded 435 rankings, but it was still behind several match-specific queries.

Who dominated the mobile News Boxes?

This screenshot from the Trisolute News Dashboard shows the most visible publishers on the knockout stage of the Club World Cup 2025 in UK mobile News Boxes and their courses of visibility throughout the examined time period from 4 to 13 July. The flags mark the most important milestones during the period, namely the quarter-finals of 4 and 5 July, the semi-finals on 8 and 9 July, and the final between Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain on 13 July.

Top publishers in U.K. News Boxes on the Club World Cup’s knockout stage

Before diving into the top news publishers, it’s worth noting that two non-news platforms—X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube—also ranked among the top 10 domains in the U.K. mobile News Boxes during the Club World Cup knockout stage. While they are greyed out in this analysis (which focuses exclusively on news publishers), their prominence is notable: X would have ranked first with a visibility share of 13.36%, while YouTube came in tenth with 4.44%. Their presence highlights the strong role of real-time online discussions and video content during major sports events. X’s dominance can likely be attributed to live match reactions, injury updates, and trending topics, while YouTube benefited from highlights, post-match analysis, and fan-driven content, all of which are heavily consumed in the immediate aftermath of matches.

Let’s now take a closer look at which news publishers excelled:

1. The Guardian
   The Guardian led the pack with 11.07% visibility, supported by two significant peaks: on July 5 (17.39%) for its live coverage of the Palmeiras vs Chelsea quarter-final, and on 10 July (17.97%) for its report on PSG’s semi-final victory over Real Madrid. The latter article also marked the Guardian’s most visible piece across the entire tournament. With a total of 1,068 keyword rankings, the outlet performed especially well on match-focused queries such as “real madrid vs dortmund” (122), “palmeiras vs chelsea” (120), and “psg vs bayern” (111).
2. Sky Sports
   Sky Sports achieved 9.32% visibility and recorded the highest single-day peak overall—28.57% on 7 July—thanks to its article on Jamal Musiala’s injury during Bayern Munich’s quarter-final loss to PSG, which also became its top-performing article overall. Another strong peak followed on 12 July (19.02%) for the outlet’s coverage of PSG’s semi-final win over Real Madrid. In total, Sky Sports amassed 536 keyword rankings, with the majority tied to “musiala” (185), followed by “psg vs real madrid” (88) and “chelsea” (58).
3. BBC (bbc.com)
   BBC.com closely followed with 9.26% visibility, peaking on 12 July at 26.23% with a live article detailing PSG’s commanding 4-0 win over Real Madrid in the semi-final. In total, the site earned 558 keyword rankings, ranking particularly well for “psg vs real madrid” (222), “chelsea” (165), and “fluminense vs chelsea” (97). The most visible article overall was titled “Fluminense 0-2 Chelsea LIVE: Club World Cup score, lineups, stats & updates”
4. Independent
   With 7.76% visibility, the Independent saw its peak on 7 July (15.58%) with an article on Manuel Neuer’s reaction to Musiala’s injury—a piece that also turned out to be its most visible contribution. The outlet garnered 916 keyword rankings, excelling in high-profile match queries and player-related coverage like “real madrid vs dortmund” (99), “musiala” (84), and “psg vs bayern” (76).
5. Evening Standard
   The Evening Standard achieved 5.41% visibility, with notable peaks on 4 July (18.46%) for its preview of the Palmeiras vs Chelsea match, 9 July (10.01%) for a live coverage of Fluminense vs Chelsea, which was also the publisher’s most visible article overall, and 13 July (11.16%) for its report on Chelsea’s tournament victory. In total, the outlet reached in 580 keyword rankings, with the most prominent ones being “chelsea” (174), “chelsea club world cup” (45), and “chelsea blues” (43).
6. The Sun
   The Sun reached 5.16% visibility, peaking on July 8 (17.76%) with coverage of Jamal Musiala’s injury and Donnarumma’s tearful reaction—an article that also became its most successful in the rankings. With 282 keyword rankings in total, The Sun gained most for “musiala” (127), alongside “chelsea” (32) and “real madrid” (27).
7. BBC (bbc.co.uk)
   The UK-based version of the BBC achieved 5.02% visibility, with major peaks on July 5 (14.86%) for its coverage of Chelsea’s 2-1 quarter-final win over Palmeiras, which was also their top article overall, and on July 13 (12.55%) for its live reporting on the final between Chelsea and PSG. The outlet collected 471 keyword rankings, particularly for “palmeiras vs chelsea” (73), “club world cup final” (55), and “chelsea” (40).
8. Daily Mail
   Last but not least, the Daily Mail landed at 4.80% visibility, with peak days on July 6 (9.94%) and July 13 (8.6%), linked to coverage of Musiala’s injury (the most visible article overall) and the final respectively. The outlet’s 376 keyword rankings were largely driven by “musiala” (44), “chelsea club world cup” (43), and “real madrid” (42).

Key takeaways for newsrooms from this analysis

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