Overview
Egyptian champion Al Ahly will travel to hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (USA) to face Inter Miami in the opening match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Al Ahly is one of four African clubs participating in this year's tournament. They have participated in the tournament 10 times before but in completely different formats.
Al Ahly is a formidable force in Africa, with a record of 12 CAF Champions League titles and 44 top-level conference titles in Egypt - 30 more than any other team.
Inter Miami will have to be wary of the threat from Emam Ashour, the player who scored the most goals in the 2024-2025 Egyptian Premier League with 13 goals. Meanwhile, no player has had more assists than Ashour throughout the season (7).
seasoned player Hussein El Shahat could also play an important role in this match for coach Jose Riveiro's team. The 32-year-old holds the record for the most matches in the previous format of the FIFA Club World Cup (17). The midfielder has achieved that number playing for Al Ain (4 games) and his current club Al Ahly (13).
With hard Rock Stadium just south of Inter Miami's home ground, this is considered an advantage for Lionel Messi and his teammates. The number of fans of the American team is expected to be much larger than the North African representative. Most fans want to see Messi firsthand, who is likely to start alongside Luis Suarez.
Messi will play in the FIFA Club World Cup for the fourth time, including the old format of the tournament. El Pulga has won all three previous appearances (2009, 2011 and 2015), scoring five goals in five appearances.
Miami head coach Javier Mascherano hopes Messi can promote his form from MLS to the FIFA Club World Cup. The Argentine striker has scored 10 goals and provided 5 assists throughout the 2025 MLS season so far.
Score prediction
Despite being an away team, Al Ahly is still predicted to beat Inter Miami.
The Egyptian team has a 44.7% chance of winning compared to Miami's 29.4%. The remaining 25.9% chance is that the match will end in a draw.
Both clubs will be looking for a positive result in this match. This could also be their best chance to win the tournament.
The teams in Group A, FC Porto and Palmeiras, are considered to have a better chance of advancing compared to Inter Miami and Al Ahly.
Predicted result: Al Ahly 2-2 Inter Miami
Expected lineup:
Al Ahly: El Shenawy, Hany, Rabia, Ibrahim, Debes, El Solia, Ashour, ateya, Mohamed, Trezeguet, Abou Ali.
Inter Miami: Ustari, Weigandt, Falcon, Lujan, Allen, Allende, Cremaschi, Busquets, Segovia, Messi, Suarez.
The match between Al Ahly and Inter Miami takes place at 7:00 a.m. on June 15 (Vietnam time).
