João Pedro has labelled Paris Saint-Germain as "sore losers" following a fiery confrontation with manager Luis Enrique after Chelsea’s 3–0 victory in the Club World Cup final on Sunday night.

Chelsea stunned the European champions at the MetLife Stadium, with a first-half brace from Cole Palmer and a composed finish from Pedro sealing the win for Enzo Maresca’s side.

However, the final whistle saw tensions erupt between both sets of players, with the most explosive moment occurring as PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Achraf Hakimi appeared to confront Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos.

Pedro, who recently completed a £60 million move from Brighton, stepped in to shield his teammate, only for Luis Enrique to approach him and push him in the face, knocking the Brazilian forward to the ground.

The altercation led to Presnel Kimpembe intervening to restrain the Spanish manager, who now faces potential disciplinary action for his conduct.

"I went to protect Andrey, I saw their players were surrounding him," Pedro told Sportv.
"Like a good Brazilian, I went to stand by my friend. A lot of people got involved and in the middle of all that, I got pushed.
"They didn’t know how to lose — but that’s football."

Speaking to CazeTV, Andrey Santos also weighed in on the incident and praised his teammates' solidarity:

"There’s no way of knowing what’s going on in the heat of the moment.
I don’t bow to anyone.
Jota [João Pedro] and the lads came over. What matters is that we are champions."

Meanwhile, Luis Enrique attempted to downplay the altercation, insisting that he was trying to diffuse the escalating situation and shifted some of the blame towards Chelsea boss Maresca.

"What happened at the end could have been avoided by everyone," Enrique said.
"I tried to separate the players — there was a lot of tension.

I saw Maresca push players, and people pushed him too. These things happen in tense moments.

We should have all done better to prevent it from reaching that point."

The unsavoury scenes came at the end of a historic evening for Chelsea, who secured their first-ever Club World Cup title in dominant fashion, while PSG were left to reflect on their failure to cap off an otherwise stellar season.