By SCM Sports Desk I Sunday, August 30, 2026
FORT LAUDERDALE — If anyone in the Sunshine State thought Lionel Messi was slowing down, they were served a reality check of seismic proportions on Saturday night.
The Argentine maestro put on an absolute masterclass, smashing home four goals and assisting another as Inter Miami utterly destroyed CF Montreal 7-1 at Chase Stadium to record the biggest victory in the club’s history.
Entering the clash on a dismal five-game winless streak, the Herons desperately needed their galaxy of superstars to shine.
They did not disappoint. In front of a raucous home crowd, South Florida became a playground for football royalty, with marquee summer signings and legendary stalwarts combining to execute a footballing execution of the highest order.
The star power was evident right from the opening whistle. Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, who recently made the headline splash from Manchester United, opened his American scoring account in the twentieth minute.
Rising highest above a static Montreal defense, Casemiro locked onto Telasco Segovia’s swinging left-wing corner to bullet a commanding header past goalkeeper Thomas Gillier.
The visitors temporarily threatened to spoil the party when Fabian Herbers slotted home a low equalizer for Montreal in the thirty-seventh minute against the run of play. But that only poked the sleeping beast. Just three minutes later, Messi stepped up to bend a dipping direct free-kick around the wall and beyond Gillier to restore Miami’s lead before the break.
The second half turned into a vintage Lionel Messi highlight reel. Seven minutes after the restart, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner collected the ball in deep midfield, danced through a maze of three defenders, and drilled a ruthless right-footed strike into the bottom corner.
Not content with merely scoring, Messi turned creator in the eightieth minute, sliding a inch-perfect threaded pass into the stride of his long-time partner-in-crime Luis Suárez.
The Uruguayan hitman made no mistake, coolly slotting home his eleventh league goal of the regular season to make it four.
Three minutes later, Messi capped off his sixty-second career club hat-trick by latching onto a pass from Argentine midfield teammate Rodrigo De Paul and delicate-as-you-like chipping the ball over the stranded keeper.
The onslaught did not end there. Eighteen-year-old academy product Alexander Shaw scored his first senior goal for the club with a thunderous eighty-ninth-minute strike from outside the box.
Then, deep in stoppage time, Messi put the final golden cherry on top by curling another sublime, direct free-kick into the net to complete his four-goal “poker” and seal the breathtaking 7-1 triumph.
The match statistical underlying data tells the story of total and complete dominance by Inter Miami. The hosts commanded sixty-four percent of the ball possession, completing five-hundred and eighty-two passes compared to Montreal’s two-hundred and ninety-six.
Out of Inter Miami’s eighteen overall shot attempts, an incredible twelve were directed on target, yielding an expected goals rating of four-point-two. By contrast, CF Montreal mustered just six total shots, with only two finding the target.
Miami’s clinical finishing and defensive stranglehold propelled them up to second place in the MLS Eastern Conference with forty-two points from twenty-two matches, while sending a terrifying message to the rest of the league.
