Opening match of the Club World Cup in Miami: Goalless rebuttal to Infantino's advertising slogans

The beginning of a new era? A message to the world? The 0-0 draw between Lionel Messi's Inter Miami and Al-Ahly of Egypt was a very tough football match. The opening ceremony – and the tense situation in the USA – will remain in the memory.

It wasn't much of a stretch, the hair of a prawn perhaps, and the first evening of the Club World Cup would have seen a moment of magic after all. If Egyptian goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy hadn't had his fingers on the ball, one would have had to speak of an invisible hand preventing something memorable. Lionel Messi took a short corner with seconds left in the 90 minutes, immediately received the ball back and then fired it with plenty of spin towards the left corner of the goal with the inside of his foot. It would have been a dream goal, no question, one of those goals that you could watch again and again. But this game between Inter Miami from the USA and Al-Ahly, the Red giants from Egypt, didn't deserve such magic.