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On Thursday, June 19, Inter Miami registered a 2-1 victory over Porto in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Group A clash at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on the back of a stunning free kick goal taken by Lionel Messi. The Argentinian footballing superstar got the match-winning goal in the 54th minute, which helped Inter Miami to become the first-ever team from Major League Soccer (MLS) to defeat a club from any of the European competitions.
Before the Lionel Messi special at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Inter Miami had to chase the game for quite some time in the first half after Samu Aghehowa scored a penalty to open the scoring for Porto in the eighth minute. The equaliser for Inter Miami at the start of the second half, in the 47th minute courtesy of Telasco Segovia, who was assisted by Marcelo Weigandt, bringing them right back in the contest against the run of play.
Just seven minutes later, the fans in Atlanta were treated to a Lionel Messi’s perfectly placed free-kick into the top corner after he was fouled by a Porto player just outside the box. Inter Miami managed to hold on to the 2-1 lead despite the best efforts from the Portuguese outfit to find an equaliser of their own, which led to their first defeat in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 after drawing their opening Group A match against Palemieras.
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It's a really important win for us and we have to enjoy it: Lionel Messi
In the post-match chat with DAZN, Lionel Messi addressed Inter Miami’s statement victory over Porto, and said, as per The Times of India, “It's a really important win for us and we have to enjoy it... You can see that we want to compete, and today we competed against a really good European team... we knew that today we were weaker, but we had our strengths.”
“I had a feeling (the free-kick) was going in. That was a great goal, a great show of leadership and coming in a clutch moment for us,” said Inter Miami forward Fafa Picault about his teammate Lionel Messi’s goal.
