Touted as the Club World Cup’s marquee Round of 16 clash, the match quickly turned into a rout. Paris Saint-Germain dominated Inter Miami on Sunday, cruising to a 4-0 win and handing FIFA’s chosen MLS representative a humbling defeat, News.Az informs via Yahoo.
The beatdown was, in one sense, unsurprising. It was exactly what you’d expect from the champions of Europe, backed by limitless Qatari wealth, against an aging, unbalanced team hampered by MLS spending restrictions.
But it was still stunning.
Even when it was only 1-0, it was remarkably, almost indescribably one-sided.
In the first half, PSG ultimately scored more goals (four) than Miami completed passes into the attacking third (three), per Opta.
It created six “big chances” in those first 45-plus minutes. Miami took zero shots.
It wasn’t quite Bayern Munich 10, Auckland City 0. But it was a mismatch collectively and individually, at every position. PSG fullback Achraf Hakimi was bombing forward to intercept passes from Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari. PSG midfielders were smothering Miami’s best youngster, Telasco Segovia. Federico Redondo was getting pulled out of position by PSG attackers. Willian Pacho was shutting down Tadeo Allende. Nuno Mendes was overpowering and nicking the ball of Lionel Messi.
Yes, even Messi was overmatched. He produced one moment of magic, one reminder of his peerless genius, cushioning a volleyed through-ball over PSG heads, right onto the foot of Luis Suarez. But Suarez’s touch went astray.
Mostly, the two former Barcelona stars just looked old and, well, former.
And invisible. In the first half, they were rendered irrelevant by PSG’s press, and by a team ill-equipped to deal with it.
PSG, straight from kickoff, dumped the ball into Miami’s end, and dared the Herons to do what they usually do in MLS: build possessions from the back. But whenever they tried here, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, on this elevated stage, they ran head-first into the fiercest, most front-footed first line of defense in all of football. Via short passes, they couldn’t even get into the middle third of the field, much less PSG’s half.
So they gave up, and started going long. But they had nobody to target. Ustari would float 50-yard balls in the direction of Suarez. PSG’s defenders and João Neves would gobble them up, and come right back at Miami.
Neves scored PSG's first goal after five minutes, with a free header from a relatively simple set piece.
