Messi Scores Four as Inter Miami Rout CF Montréal 7-1 for Biggest Win in Club History

Lionel Messi scored four goals as Inter Miami thrashed CF Montréal 7-1 at Nu Stadium on Saturday night, the biggest winning margin in the club's history and the first time Inter Miami have put seven past anyone. Two of the four arrived from direct free-kicks. It was the first four-goal game of Messi's MLS career, and the 62nd hat-trick of his career.

The scoreline flattered nobody. Miami opened the scoring in the 20th minute from a Telasco Segovia corner, were pegged back by Fabian Herbers on 37 minutes, and then scored six unanswered goals. Messi's opener came three minutes after the equaliser and the rout never really paused after that. The win was Miami's fifth in a row over Montréal and moved them to 12-4-6.

Two direct free-kicks, and the shot that defines his late career

The first came on 40 minutes, three minutes after Montréal had equalised, and went in straight from the set piece. The fourth was the seventh and final goal of the night, arriving deep into stoppage time on 90+6, and it was another direct free-kick. Only eight players in MLS history had previously scored two direct free-kicks in a single match. Messi is now the ninth, and the two set pieces bookended everything that happened in between.

In between came the two goals that made the night look like a highlight reel rather than a statistical curiosity. On 52 minutes he collected the ball, went past three Montréal defenders and finished himself. On 83 minutes he added a chipped finish. Three minutes before that he had rolled a pass into Luis Suárez for Miami's fifth, which meant he finished the evening with four goals and an assist in a single league fixture.

There is a temptation, every time Messi does this at 39, to file it under nostalgia. The record does not support that reading. The free-kick has become the defining weapon of his late career precisely because it does not demand the acceleration that age takes away, and the solo goal on 52 minutes was evidence that the acceleration has not entirely gone either. He went into the weekend two goals behind FC Dallas striker Petar Musa in the Golden Boot race. Nights like this one are how that kind of gap disappears.

A club record, and a supporting cast that turned up

For all that Messi dominated the box score, this was a club night as much as a personal one. Inter Miami had never scored seven goals in a match before Saturday, and they had never won by six. Segovia's corner produced the opener inside 20 minutes, Suárez took his goal on 80 minutes, and Alexander Shaw, an 18-year-old, scored the first goal of his career on 89 minutes.

Shaw's finish is the sort of detail that gets lost in a seven-goal scoreline, and it should not be. A first professional goal in a rout is still a first professional goal. Miami's willingness to keep scoring long after the game was safe also says something about a squad that is regularly described as a one-man team: six goals after the 37th minute, from three different scorers, is not the profile of a side that stops when Messi stops.

Montréal were level with eight minutes of the first half still to play, and had every reason to think they were in the game. Herbers' equaliser on 37 minutes was the reward for a competitive opening half-hour. What followed was a collapse rather than a contest, and it extends a losing run against Miami that now stands at five matches.

Two direct free-kicks in one match is a list only nine players in MLS history are on. Four goals in a night is a list Messi himself had not been on until Saturday. At 39 he is not surviving this league; he is still setting its terms.— OneLightScore Analysis

Key facts

Key numbers

• 4 - Messi goals, the first four-goal game of his MLS career
• 62 - career hat-tricks for Messi
• 9th - player in MLS history to score two direct free-kicks in one match
• 6 - unanswered Miami goals after Fabian Herbers' 37th-minute equaliser
• 5 - consecutive Inter Miami wins over CF Montréal
• 12-4-6 - Inter Miami's record after the win
• 2 - goals Messi trailed FC Dallas' Petar Musa by going into the weekend

What happens next

Miami stay at Nu Stadium to host Atlanta United next, while Montréal return home to face Philadelphia Union. For Miami the wider context is the run towards the play-offs and the defence of their MLS Cup, and a night like this is worth more than three points on its own. A 12-4-6 record and a scoreline of that size are both useful things to be carrying into September.

The question the result does not answer is whether Miami can produce anything like it without Messi in the middle of it. He has now had the single biggest attacking night in the club's history, and the club's biggest ever win came on the same evening. Those two sentences describe the same 90 minutes, and the rest of Miami's season will be judged on how often they can be separated.

Inter Miami vs Atlanta United: kick-off time and where to watch

Inter Miami's next assignment is at home to Atlanta United at Nu Stadium, and the kick-off time for that fixture, in UTC, in local Miami time (ET), in Pacific time (PT) and in UK time (BST), is listed on the OneLightScore match page as soon as the league confirms it, alongside the day and date. Where to watch it depends entirely on where you are: the TV channels carrying MLS differ between the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, and live stream rights change from season to season. If you want to know how to watch this one, or simply to watch live online wherever you happen to be, full country-by-country TV channel and live stream listings for this fixture, plus live scores and the running table, are on OneLightScore.

Our full TV listings and broadcast listings for MLS sit alongside the Eastern and Western Conference tables, and live scores from every match run on OneLightScore as they happen. It is the quickest way to follow live football on TV and to track Miami's run towards the play-offs.