There were two minutes of Inter Miami’s Club World Cup left and the cameras were out in Atlanta. Here at last was the moment many had come for, one that didn’t matter as far as the match was concerned but that felt almost bigger than all that went before, a comment perhaps on this competition and the dimension of the man everyone was watching now as ever. Lionel Messi stood outside the area, a little to the right, the ball at his feet, a wall built before him. Paris Saint-Germain had been 4-0 up for an hour and his team were long since defeated but maybe he could depart his way, leaving something else to remember him by.
He took a step back, ran forward in that familiar way and curled the free‑kick into the bodies dressed in blue. This time it wasn’t to be; this time, reality was something else, implacably imposed by the European champions. The day before, Javier Mascherano admitted his Miami side had not really expected to get the chance to play this game and when it came to it PSG proved the coach right.
