assists

Messi’s dominant performance against Atlanta came after he briefly left international duty with Argentina during the FIFA window.

Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted on another by Jordi Alba to lead Inter Miami to a 4-0 home victory over Atlanta United on Saturday night in Major League Soccer (MLS) at Chase Stadium in Florida.

Messi, who sat out his home nation, Argentina’s, friendly against Venezuela that was held in Miami one night earlier, started and helped Inter Miami (18-7-8, 62 points) guarantee itself at least the No 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with the victory.

The Herons still have a chance to secure the No 2 seed if they can finish with more points than FC Cincinnati, which also has 62 points. If the teams finish with the same number of points, Cincinnati would clinch the higher seed by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Atlanta United (5-16-12, 27 points), which eliminated Inter Miami from the MLS playoffs in the first round last season, lost its third match in a row and is winless in its past five.

Both teams were short-handed due to the FIFA international window this week. But Messi, who chose to play for club over country this weekend, now leads the MLS in goals, with 26, and his 18th assist tied San Diego’s Anders Dreyer for the league lead.

Messi’s first goal came in the 39th minute when he controlled a crossing pass from Baltasar Rodriguez and curled in a shot to the far top corner to break a scoreless deadlock. His second goal capped the scoring in the 87th minute off an assist from Alba.

In the 52nd minute, Messi created the chance that led to Miami’s second score, when he looped a long ball across the field to Alba as he surged towards Atlanta’s goal. Alba did the rest, lobbing the ball over Atlanta keeper Jayden Hibbert.

Luis Suarez added to the tally in the 61st minute, when he timed a shot perfectly off a high clearance attempt by Atlanta into the back of the net, curling the ball past Hibbert. Inter Miami’s Rocco Rios Novo started in goal and recorded the clean sheet.

Atlanta United, which has been riddled with injuries to key players this season, had to deal with another when, in the 14th minute, Stian Gregersen was forced to leave the game with what appeared to be a potential hamstring issue.

Saturday’s fixture was the final MLS regular-season match at Chase Stadium for Inter, with the team relocating to Miami Freedom Park in 2026.

A trio of assists by star forward Lionel Messi helped Inter Miami crush New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.

Jordi Alba and Tadeo Allende each scored two goals to lead host Inter Miami to a 4-1 victory over the New England Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Saturday night’s victory snapped a two-match winless streak for Inter Miami (17-7-8, 59 points), which moved into third place in the Eastern Conference’s Major League Soccer (MLS) standings. With two matches to play, Miami trails FC Cincinnati by three points for second place. Cincinnati has one match left.

Dor Turgeman scored the lone goal for New England (9-16-8, 35 points) as the Revolution came up short for the fifth time in their past six matches.

Argentinian star forward Lionel Messi did not score for the second consecutive match, but he contributed by assisting on three of Inter Miami’s goals.

On the first goal contribution under a torrential downspout late in the first half, Messi delivered a precise through ball on the run to Allende, who fired the ball past New England goalkeeper Matt Turner in the 32nd minute.

Just before half-time, Messi intercepted a clearing attempt by New England near its own goal. He then dropped it back for Alba, who proceeded to bury it in the back of the net in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.

The Revolution put themselves back in contention for a victory in the 59th minute on a brilliant shot by Turgeman after he took the ball just past midfield from Carles Gil. As Turgeman worked the ball near Miami’s box, he fired a line drive past Inter Miami goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Rios Novo got the start in favour of Inter Miami’s regular starting keeper Oscar Ustari, who allowed a season-high five goals last Tuesday in a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Fire.

Inter Miami answered almost immediately. Within less than a minute, a rush up the field ended with Allende streaking towards the goal and finishing off another assist from Messi.

Three minutes later, Alba tacked on another score off a great pass from Telasco Segovia.

CHELSEA have finally discovered their final Club World Cup opponent — thanks to a dramatic late winner created by one of their former stars.

The Conference League champions head to the US this summer to take part in the newly-expanded tournament.

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Chelsea already knew they were going to be facing Brazilian side Flamengo and Tunisian team Esperance Sportive de Tunis in the group stage.

However, their third and final opponent remained unknown after Mexican outfit Club Leon were booted out due to Fifa’s multi-club ownership rules.

Fellow Liga MX side CF Pachuca — also owned by Grupo Pachuca — had already qualified for the Club World Cup, forcing Leon to withdraw.

And it meant that another Mexican side, Club America, were handed a dramatic playoff against MLS club LAFC.

The Americans were trailing 1-0 with just minutes to go when they equalised in the 89th minute.

LAFC then scored an amazing winner in the 115th minute through Denis Bouanga, with former Chelsea star and Champions League winner Olivier Giroud creating the goal for 2-1.

Now, the Frenchman will face his former side with LAFC in the opening group stage game on June 16.

Chelsea will then play Flamengo four days later on June 20.

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And five days after that, on June 25, Chelsea end their group stage experience against Esperance.

The Club World Cup will be one of the most lucrative tournaments going, with the winner set to bank a mind-blowing £100million.

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And Chelsea will be desperate to keep the good times rolling after ending a three-year trophy drought against Real Betis on Wednesday.

The Blues came back from a goal down to win 4-1 in Warsaw.

It came just days after they secured a fourth-place finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

And new signings are already inbound, with Chelsea reportedly beating Manchester United, Newcastle and Everton in the race for £30m Ipswich striker Liam Delap.

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