{"id":864362,"date":"2025-07-23T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/messis-free-kick-masterclass-delivers-historic-inter-miami-victory-over-porto\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T00:12:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:12:00","slug":"messis-free-kick-masterclass-delivers-historic-inter-miami-victory-over-porto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/messis-free-kick-masterclass-delivers-historic-inter-miami-victory-over-porto\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi\u2019s Free-Kick Masterclass Delivers Historic Inter Miami Victory Over Porto"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_91\">\n<p>June 20, (THEWILL) \u2013 Lionel Messi produced a moment of magic to fire Inter Miami to a stunning 2-1 comeback victory against Porto in the Club World Cup on Thursday, marking the first competitive win for an MLS side over European opposition. The Argentine icon\u2019s trademark free-kick found the top corner with precision after 54 minutes, completing a remarkable turnaround at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The result leaves both Inter Miami and Palmeiras level on four points atop Group A, following the Brazilian club\u2019s 2-0 victory over Al Ahly earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>Porto had dominated the opening exchanges and took an early lead through Samu Aghehowa\u2019s eighth-minute penalty, awarded after a VAR review deemed Noah Allen\u2019s contact on Joao Mario sufficient for a spot-kick. The Portuguese side controlled much of the first half, with goalkeeper Claudio Ramos making crucial saves to deny Luis Suarez and Benjamin Cremaschi, while Maximiliano Falcon cleared off his own line to prevent a certain second goal. Despite Porto\u2019s superiority, Inter Miami remained within touching distance thanks to some resolute defending and Oscar Ustari\u2019s penalty-saving heroics from their previous match carrying over into confident shot-stopping.<\/p>\n<p>The second half brought an immediate response from Javier Mascherano\u2019s men, with Telasco Segovia hammering home Marcelo Weigandt\u2019s cut-back just after the restart to level the contest. Six minutes later, Messi stepped up to a free-kick on the edge of the area and delivered the moment that has become synonymous with his career \u2013 a perfectly weighted strike that sailed into the top right corner, leaving Ramos with no chance. The 37-year-old\u2019s involvement had been constant throughout the match, threading passes and creating opportunities even before his decisive intervention.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zenithbank.com\/ziva\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Ask_ZiVA_728x90.gif\" alt=\"Ask ZiVA 728x90 Ads\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Inter Miami\u2019s historic victory comes just two years after David Beckham\u2019s co-owned franchise made their MLS debut in 2020, with Messi\u2019s arrival in 2023 transforming their global profile dramatically. The attendance of nearly 32,000 fans gradually filled the stadium throughout the afternoon, drawn by the opportunity to witness the player widely regarded as football\u2019s greatest talent. Although Thursday\u2019s 3pm kick-off time on a working day initially hampered the crowd, but supporters filtered in steadily as word spread of the developing spectacle on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>The final moments tested Inter Miami\u2019s resolve, with seven minutes of added time announced to groans from the home crowd, but Mascherano\u2019s players threw themselves into blocks and tackles with the determination their former Argentina captain would have appreciated.<\/p>\n<div data-box-layout=\"tabbed\" data-box-position=\"below\" data-multiauthor=\"false\" data-author-id=\"21\" data-author-type=\"user\" data-author-archived>\n<nav><label for=\"mab-tab-profile-5899479294\"><span>Author Profile<\/span><\/label><label for=\"mab-tab-related-5899479294\"><\/label><\/nav>\n<div data-profile-layout=\"layout-1\" data-author-ref=\"user-21\" itemscope itemid=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/author\/jude-obafemi\/\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/author\/jude-obafemi\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/JUDE-BABAFEMI-1-150x150.jpg\" alt itemprop=\"image\"  ><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><h5 itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/author\/jude-obafemi\/\" itemprop=\"url\"> Jude Obafemi, THEWILL<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/p>\n<p>Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.thewillnigeria.app\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/THEWILL-APP-ADS-2.jpg\" alt=\"THEWILL APP ADS 2\" width=\"800\" height=\"186\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewillnews.com\/messis-free-kick-masterclass-delivers-historic-inter-miami-victory-over-porto\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=messis-free-kick-masterclass-delivers-historic-inter-miami-victory-over-porto\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 20, (THEWILL) \u2013 Lionel Messi produced a moment of magic to fire Inter Miami to a stunning 2-1 comeback victory against Porto in the Club World Cup on Thursday, marking the first competitive win for an MLS side over European opposition. The Argentine icon\u2019s trademark free-kick found the top corner with precision after 54<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145464,93020],"tags":[145463,108989],"class_list":{"0":"post-864362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-free-kick","8":"category-messis","9":"tag-free-kick","10":"tag-messis"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}