PSG breezed past Inter Miami and advanced to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup quarter finals, with Sergio Busquets at the centre of their defensive game plan.
João Neves’ early opener basically sealed PSG’s spot in the quarter finals of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup right then and there against Inter Miami. The Americans clearly went into the game looking to protect the 0-0 for as long as possible and hope that Luis Enrique’s men had a bad day at the office.
Unfortunately for them, the exact opposite happened: a goal in the sixth minute changed the landscape of the game and, by the end of the first half, the score already showed 4-0 in favour of the French side.
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Complete overmatch
Despite remaining unbeaten in the group stage, Inter Miami have basically zero paths to win a competitive game against PSG – a far better, deeper, more well coached and organised team. All of this makes it hard to analyse the match and take anything relevant out of it.
And if there was a way for Miami to at least have a small chance to beat PSG, it certainly revolves around not conceding a goal five minutes in. From then on, Javier Mascherano’s strategy was basically to try and keep the opponents from scoring more to get to the end of the game with the lowest possible deficit. That way, one play, one dead ball or one flash of brilliance from either Lionel Messi or Luis Suárez could do the trick – it was not the case.
Still, the Americans made the game somewhat fun in the second half, when realising there was nothing else to lose already down 0-4. Chances were PSG would pull the brakes and try to rest some players for the final 45 minutes. Miami had two opportunities in fast breaks, but Suárez failed to take control of the ball in the six-yard box in the first one and Allende butchered the second. Messi also took a dangerous free-kick later on but couldn’t get the ball past the wall.
PSG target Busquets to nullify and then break Inter Miami
Still, there was one interesting story in what was otherwise a very dull and predictable game. Everyone imagined PSG would beat Inter Miami easily, but how they did it deserves a mention.
Offensively, there was no way Miami would stop the Parisians. They’ve had defensive issues in every single game during the Club World Cup so far (facing Al Ahly, Porto and Palmeiras) and have dealt with them in the MLS as well. That tells you everything you need to know about their – lack of – ability to stop opponents from scoring.
So we can talk about the dynamic movement and free-flowing 3-2-5 that Luis Enrique has PSG playing so well with the ball, with wingers switching sides, midfielders attacking the box, receiving through balls and acting almost as stikers, but that’s nothing new.
The Spaniard decided to target Sergio Busquets – a player he previously coached in his Barcelona days and knows very well – to render Inter Miami useless when in possession. The veteran midfielder is the only footballer capable of getting Miami out of the defence and move the ball forward to find Messi or Suárez and organize the team as a whole.
Fabián Ruiz executed his assignment to man-mark Busquets every single time the Americans had the ball so well that he looked like Busquets’ shadow. Mascherano had him ahead of the two centre-backs when initiating build-up so he was always playing facing his own goal, making it impossible to turn and dictate play. That way, Miami went to other options to try and progress up the field, but neither Federico Redondo, Tadeo Allende or Telasco Segovia had enough quality to keep moves flowing and find Messi and Suárez. In the end, all of their possessions were short and ended in incomplete long balls.
For context, this game represented Inter Miami’s fifth-lowest mark in average possession time (9.5 seconds) and the lowest in 10+ passes sequences (5).
The moment that Busquets took a step back and joined the central defenders to form a back three and try to see the game in front of him, Ruiz applied great pressure and straight up stole possession from him in what led to PSG’s second goal and officially ended all Miami’s hopes to get back into the game.
It wasn’t exactly a genius tactical stroke that swung the match in favour of the French side, but it was an interesting detail of how PSG managed to not only get themselves going, but also stop Inter Miami from doing basically anything. From then on, an own goal and Achraf Hakimi closed the deal and made it 4-0 before half time – though the game was over much earlier than that.