After a long waiting time, the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup started this Saturday in the United States. Despite playing in Hard Rock Stadium, Inter Miami was technically the visiting team against Al Ahly, in an exciting opening that ended in a scoreless draw. The herons of Lionel Messi and the Egyptian giants shared the points in the first group A competition.
Although not the ideal result for the Javier Mascherano team, this draw Miami is firmly in hunting to reach the next round, prior to their remaining group matches against Porto and Palmeiras. However, these competitions are expected to be more challenging because of the level of the Portuguese and Brazilian teams. Here are the most important moments of the collision between the North Americans and Africans.
Asour injury a blow for Al Ahly
Before the first 15 minutes were played, Emam Ashour had to leave the field, a painful loss for Al Ahly. The 27-year-old Egyptian attacking midfielder had a season full of impressive statistics, which drove the African Red Devils forward, but in the opening match of the Club World Cup he had to be replaced by problems with his left shoulder.
Avilés escaped a red card
Tomás Avilés, the young Argentinian central defender of Inter Miami, barely avoided seeing a red card after the referee forgave him a second yellow in the last part of the first half. The raceclub product has had many disciplinary problems in MLS, and in the club World Cup he was close to leaving the herons with 10 players.
Ustari has set up a show
Óscar Ustari, the experienced Argentinian goalkeeper for the Javier Mascherano team, did a spectacular achievement in the first half to keep the score on 0-0. The first major intervention of Ustari was to keep a powerful header out of Achraf Dari – and the second was a penalty saved from Mahmoud Trézéguet, dive on his right and stop the shot in time.
Messi let Miami go
Messi raised his level in the second half and inspired all his teammates. The captain demonstrated his quality again, and although he did not score, he made it clear that he still has a lot of football left despite his age.
The fans were completely engaged and Messi came close to scoring a few times. He ended the match with two shots on goal, two shots from Target, two shots against the woodwork, created a clear chance and three received errors (statistics per sofascore).
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