Messi on CWC: Expectations different with Miami

Lionel Messi shared that helium has antithetic expectations with Inter Miami going into the 2025 Club World Cup than erstwhile competing antecedently with different teams, but that helium remains anxious to bash good among the champion teams successful the world.

Messi has competed successful erstwhile iterations of the tournament, winning the 2009, 2011 and 2015 editions with Barcelona.

"Well, it's an absorbing competition," Messi told FIFA connected Friday. "Having the accidental to beryllium portion of it is exciting. The expectations I person are antithetic to the ones I had erstwhile I played for different teams, but I'm anxious and I look guardant to competing against the champion [teams] and doing well."

The 2025 mentation of the tournament, being held crossed the United States, features an enlargement to 32 teams for the archetypal time. Inter Miami and Messi are acceptable to footwear disconnected the contention against Egypt's Al Ahly connected Saturday earlier confronting FC Porto of Portugal and Brazil's Palmeiras successful the radical stage.

In opposition to the agelong and affluent histories of galore of the different clubs competing successful the FIFA competition, Miami lone debuted successful Major League Soccer successful 2020.

"Like I said before, they person the champion players successful the world," Messi added. "So it's a large accidental to spell up against them, and a truly bully acquisition some for the players connected the transportation and for the fans successful the stands."

For Saturday's opener, Miami volition beryllium without 1 of their players with erstwhile Club World Cup acquisition successful Messi's ex-Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba. Miami caput manager Javier Mascherano confirmed Friday that Alba, Yannick Bright and Gonzalo Luján volition each miss retired done injury, though expressed anticipation that they could instrumentality for the 2nd crippled against Porto connected Thursday.

Mascherano besides expressed vexation that Miami has failed to adhd to its roster up of the competition.

"For the past fewer months, we person been saying that we needed to get immoderate reinforcements," helium told reporters. "Not lone due to the fact that we person immoderate injured players, but besides due to the fact that we decided astatine the extremity of the MLS marketplace to fto Robert Taylor and Julian Gressel spell due to the fact that we needed to person the accidental to bring different players in.

"This is the astir important contention successful the past of our club. It has a alternatively abbreviated life, but this is the astir important contention that we person taken portion of. And arsenic I person said before, I americium lone acrophobic with what I tin power and what I tin bash and past the different parties volition person to instrumentality their ain work and speech for themselves.

"On my side, the lone work is to hole the champion imaginable game, and I americium blessed with that. But it is wide that we needed to reenforce our squad, and it has not happened. "

Inter Miami players person maintained that the squad volition attack the tourney crippled by crippled with the hopes of qualifying to the knockout rounds and, contempt not having the roster helium desires, Mascherano said they would relish the accidental to measurement themselves against the world's champion for the archetypal clip successful a competitory environment.

"I deliberation it's a immense accidental for america to trial each different retired to spot what our level is," helium said. "Maybe we cognize what the level that we person is wrong MLS and Concacaf, wherever we competed head-to-head to the precise past of the Concacaf Champions League.

"Now the level is higher and we privation to beryllium up to the level truthful from the affectional broadside determination are nary questions, nary hesitations. We person a beauteous anticipation up of america and the situation is thing that we invited with excitement, with a large woody of self-confidence. We are looking guardant to showcasing our existent imaginable arsenic a team."