PSG Eliminates Lionel Messi and Inter Miami From the FIFA Club World Cup

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

Inter Miami’s run in the FIFA Club World Cup is over.

Lionel Messi-led Miami, the only one of Major League Soccer’s three participating clubs to advance to the 32-team tournament’s round of 16, were humbled by European champions Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 on Sunday in Atlanta.

PSG, the club Messi played for from 2021 until arriving in South Florida two summers ago, won its first UEFA Champions League title last month, beating Inter Milan 5-0 in the continental final.

Sunday’s match went much the same way. The French titans ran out to a lopsided first-half lead and never looked back. Portuguese midfielder Joao Neves opened the scoring just five minutes into the match on an unmarked header from point-blank range.

Miami tightened up defensively after that — until a fatal six-minute stretch at the end of the first half. Neves doubled the Parisians’ advantage in the 39th-minute, and PSG added two more goals before the halftime whistle sounded. The first was an own goal by substitute Herons defender Tomas Aviles, who came on for an injured Noah Allen. Star PSG fullback Achraf Hakimi then made it 4-0 in first half stoppage time, effectively ending the contest there and then.

PSG is coached by Spaniard Luis Enrique, who managed Messi plus Miami teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez plus Herons’ boss Javier Mascherano with Barcelona in the mid-2010s. The Champions League winners will take on either Brazilian giants Flamengo or European rivals Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals next Saturday. That game will also be staged at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Georgia’s capital. Miami returns to MLS regular season action next Saturday, when they face CF Montreal north of the border.

MLS clubs LAFC and the Seattle Sounders were eliminated from the Club World Cup in the group stage. Neither won a game. Miami, meantime, went undefeated in the first round, beating two-time European champ Porto and tying Brazil’s Palmeiras and Egypt’s Al Ahly.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.