PSG sweep Inter Miami and Messi aside to reach Club World Cup quarter-final
Last 16: Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 Inter Miami
European champions expose gulf in quality
There were two minutes of Inter Miami’s Club World Cup left and the cameras were out in Atlanta. Here at last was the moment many had come for, one that didn’t matter as far as the match was concerned but that felt almost bigger than all that went before, a comment perhaps on this competition and the dimension of the man everyone was watching now as ever. Lionel Messi stood outside the area, a little to the right, the ball at his feet, a wall built before him. Paris Saint-Germain had been 4-0 up for an hour and his team were long since defeated but maybe he could depart his way, leaving something else to remember him by.
He took a step back, ran forward in that familiar way and curled the free-kick into the bodies dressed in blue. This time it wasn’t to be; this time, reality was something else, implacably imposed by the European champions. The day before, Miami’s coach Javier Mascherano admitted that his side hadn’t really expected to get the chance to play this game and when it came to it PSG proved him right. Not until the second half of this match, by which time they had already conceded four, were Miami really given the chance to even participate here.
