Paris Saint-Germain scored four goals in the first half, two from João Neves, and never looked back as they routed Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, 4-0, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday in a Club World Cup Round of 16 match.
Just six minutes into the match, PSG pulled ahead via a set piece. A Vitinha free kick found João Neves, whose header at the near post escaped the grasp of Miami keeper Oscar Ustari to make it 1-0.
PSG then added a pair of goals in quick succession to extend their lead. Neves made it a double in the 33rd minute, capping a well-worked sequence with a simple tap-in off a Fabián Ruiz assist. Then, in the 44th minute, Tomas Aviles deflected a PSG cross into his own net to make it 3-0. Later, Achraf Hakimi added one for good measure in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time to put an exclamation point on the proceedings.
As expected, Messi was a key figure in this one, with many in a crowd of 65,574 chanting his name throughout the afternoon and roaring every time the footballing legend touched the ball. Unfortunately for Miami, his opportunities — and opportunities for his teammates, for that matter — were few and far between, as even a late free kick well inside his range instead found PSG’s defending wall.
As for PSG, it will face either Flamengo or Bayern Munich in a Saturday quarterfinal match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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What I saw was PSG demonstrating what “the beautiful game” really is. Whatever Atlanta United is doing week in and week out is an abomination.
It was to be expected – just surprised the score wasn’t even more lopsided than it was.