Lionel Messi believes that Inter Miami has shown that they “want to compete” at the Club World Cup after they have come from behind on Thursday to beat Porto.
The 2-1 victory of Miami over Porto was their very first victory at the Club World Cup, where Telasco Segovia and Messi turned the tables in the second half, after the early penalty of Samu Aghehowa in Atlanta.
Messi yielded the winner with a stunning free kick, his 68th such objective for Club and Country, and scored at least one in 12 different competitions (plus international friendly competitions).
In fact, it was his 50th goal for Miami in his 61st performance for the club, while it was Messi's second goal against Porto, after he also scored and helped them in the UEFA Cup final 2011.
In general it was Messi's sixth goal at the World Cup club, after it had scored five for Barcelona for three title -winning campaigns.
And he was happy with Miami's performance when they gathered to earn an important three points.
“It was a great effort from the whole team,” Messi told Dazn.
“We not only defended, but we managed the ball well. We had a sour taste after the game against Al Ahly. This is a very important victory and we will enjoy it.
“It is seen that we want to compete; we participated against a good team, and here and there we gave the first half away. The young boys had the nerves in this competition for the first time.”
Miami managed only six shots in the game, with five on goal, because they collected 0.9 expected goals (XG), compared to 1.7 from Porto, who had 14 attempts (three on goal).
They also succeeded in just 11 touches in the opposition box to Porto's 35, although both teams had the same part of the possession in a tight competition.
Head Coach Javier Mascherano, just like Messi, believes that Miami has shown their best options.
“I think the boys have done fantastic work,” he told Dazn. “They worked very, very hard against a team that had a lot of quality at a high level.
“We have shown the world and ourselves that we can compete against every team.
“The first half was also good. The players understood that they could do it. If they are together, when we are narrow, we can do something great next to our teammates.”
Porto's head coach, Martin Anselmi, was meanwhile disappointed his side, who missed two big opportunities at the end of the first half, including Alan Varela who hit the mail, could not build on their strong start.
“We didn't play the way we should have had tactical,” he said. “They have good players, and they didn't allow us to win the ball back, and when we even got it, it was too late.
“We should have done it earlier. We have to take the blame for these moments. They were better able.”
Miami is second in group A, level on four points with Palmeiras, who already beat Ahly earlier on Thursday with 2-0 after a storm slowdown. The herons are confronted with the Brazilian side in their last game and need a point to qualify from the group.