CLUB WORLD CUP
Palmeiras salvage draw with Inter Miami as both advance to Club World Cup last 16
Palmeiras rallied from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw against Inter Miami and qualify top of Group A for the Club World Cup last 16 on Monday, a result that sent both teams through to the knockout phase.
Goals from Tadeo Allende and Luis Suarez gave Miami a two-goal lead before Paulinho and Mauricio scored in the last 10 minutes to get Palmeiras back on level terms.
Both teams finished on five points with Inter Miami second on goal difference, while Al-Ahly and Porto were both eliminated after drawing 4-4.
Lionel Messi’s side will take on European champions Paris St Germain, where the Argentine spent two seasons from 2021-23, while Palmeiras face fierce rivals Botafogo in an all-Brazilian clash for a place in the quarter-finals.
“It was a great game from us, it’s difficult to play against one of the best teams in South America,” said Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano, who described it as a “historic night” for Major League Soccer.
“Maybe at the end we had the game in our hands so the feeling is strange but before the start of the tournament if someone told me we were going to have this kind of performance against these kind of teams I would have signed it.”
Inter Miami are the only team from MLS to reach the last 16 after both Los Angeles FC and the Seattle Sounders were eliminated.
With the crowd heavily favouring Palmeiras and creating an atmosphere that made it seem like an away game for hosts Miami, the Brazilian side started with intensity, pressing high up the pitch but despite their energy the final ball lacked precision.
Miami struck in the 16th minute when Allende surged past a static Palmeiras defence and coolly slotted home after a 40-metre run.
Allende came close again early in the second half, flashing a shot narrowly wide after another quick counterattack, before Messi brought fans to their feet with a dipping volley from distance that sailed just over.
Suarez, quiet for much of the game, made no mistake in the 65th minute as he cut onto his left foot and fired into the top corner from a tight angle to make it 2-0.
Palmeiras pulled one back 10 minutes from time through substitute Paulinho, who guided a low finish into the corner.
Seven minutes later Mauricio picked up a loose clearance and fired home from the penalty spot to make sure Palmeiras would keep top spot in the group.
-Reuters
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Lionel Messi will lead a quartet of former Barcelona players into a meeting with their former coach Luis Enrique when Inter Miami face European champions Paris St Germain in the last 16 of the Club World Cup in Atlanta on Sunday.
Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez all played under Luis Enrique in Spain, and were in the side who knocked PSG out of the Champions League last 16 in the 2016-17 season.
Miami qualified for the last 16 of the Club World Cup as Group A runners-up with a 2-2 draw against Palmeiras on Monday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
PSG have certainly moved on from their traumatic Champions League exit in 2017, when they won the first leg in Paris 4-0 but were thrashed 6-1 in the return match in Barcelona.
The French side claimed their first Champions League title this season in a campaign masterminded by Luis Enrique, but Messi and Co. will be eager to cause another upset.
Suarez showed that at 38-year-old he still has the game to score on the big stage, notching Miami’s second in their draw with Palmeiras.
KEY QUOTES
Miami coach Javier Mascherano: “They are probably better than us, but in football you never know. Maybe Sunday will be our day.”
Miami forward and Man of the Match Luis Suarez: “If we make these mistakes against PSG we will pay a heavy price. Obviously, in this kind of tournament there is always going to be a favourite, that’s just a fact. We’ll be facing the European champions and we will have to try and take our chances.
“Luis Enrique has seen many players and he influenced me a lot. I already had a competitive DNA but he made me even more competitive.”
-Reuters
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Inter Miami have no intention to play for a draw when they face Palmeiras in their final Group A game at the Club World Cup on Sunday, a result that would send both teams into the knockout stages.
It would be a massive achievement for Inter Miami, who beat Porto and drew against Al Ahly in their first two games.
Palmeiras are top of the group on four points, ahead of Miami on goal difference, with Porto and Al Ahly both on one point.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
All four teams can still qualify for the last 16 but only Miami and Palmeiras have their fate in their hands. Palmeiras need a draw to qualify top of the group.
The group winners will face the second-placed team in Group B, currently led by Botafogo with six points while Champions League winners Paris St Germain are second on three points.
KEY QUOTES:
Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano: “We’re facing possibly one of the most important games in the history of our club. Above all, let that fill us with enthusiasm to be able to play it, let it not be a burden, not a burden, but an excitement and a challenge for this group of players who are also doing well up until now.
“It would be a big mistake if we went into it thinking about not playing it and only about the result. I think that when you think about the result and don’t go into it, certain things can happen during the game that make it very difficult to get back into the game. In the end, our idea is to go and win the game like we’ve always done, like every time we go into a game, whether it’s in the Club World Cup, MLS, the Champions League, or any other competition we’re involved in.”
-Reuters
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Once Brazilian football royalty, Botafogo had languished for decades as a debt-ridden sleeping giant before they toppled Paris St Germain at the Club World Cup to cap a resurrection tale three years in the making.
When American entrepreneur John Textor acquired the club in 2022, fresh from their promotion back to Brazil’s first division, he took on a training ground so decrepit that then-coach Luis Castro dismissed it as “good for parking cars,” alongside crushing liabilities exceeding one billion reais ($181.39 million)
Botafogo were a storied but shattered institution. The club that once nurtured Brazilian greats – Garrincha, Zagallo, Jairzinho and Nilton Santos, architects of three World Cup triumphs – was drowning in debt, having endured the humiliation of relegation three times in just over a decade.
On Thursday, they outplayed European champions Paris St Germain to win 1-0 in the Club World Cup’s most eye-catching upset, propelling themselves to the top of the tournament’s “group of death” and on the verge of the knockout stage.
Their squad, assembled through shrewd bargain-hunting in football’s forgotten corners, now faces Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid in Los Angeles on Monday, sitting comfortably, knowing even a two-goal defeat would still secure their passage to the round of 16
The victory over PSG vindicated Textor’s vision, outlined in a Reuters interview three years prior, of “beating the system” through astute scouting in under-explored talent pools.
The architects of Thursday’s victory exemplified this approach. Match-winner Igor Jesus arrived as a free agent after three anonymous years in the UAE and was transformed into a Brazil international.
Argentine defender Alexander Barboza, who neutralised PSG’s vaunted attack, was plucked from Paraguay’s Club Libertad for nothing.
Captain Marlon Freitas came from second-division Atletico Goianiense, while experienced European campaigners Alex Telles and Allan were revitalised after spells in Middle Eastern leagues.
Gregore, Jefferson Savarino, John and Cuiabano were all signed for under two million euros ($2.30 million) each.
“The goal is to be sustainably competitive every year,” Botafogo CEO Thairo Arruda told Reuters. “With a top six payroll, we produce like a top three.”
The transformation extends far beyond the pitch. Revenues have soared from 140 million reais in 2022 to projected earnings exceeding 1.1 billion by 2025, while liabilities have been slashed by 40%. Textor’s Eagle Football empire also encompasses stakes in Ligue 1’s Olympique Lyonnais and Premier League Crystal Palace.
Botafogo’s renaissance – crowned by last year’s domestic and continental double – has breathed new life into a club motto once heavy with self-pity: “There are things that only happen to Botafogo.” After outclassing Europe’s elite, those words now carry an altogether sweeter resonance.
-Reuters
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