Ahead of the new Major League Soccer (MLS) season, Inter Miami are set to return to the pitch for their pre-season preparations. After winning the MLS Cup in the recently concluded season, Lionel Messi’s team will spend this year’s pre-season on a South American tour.
As part of this tour, Inter Miami will face “Barcelona”—though not Spain’s FC Barcelona, but Ecuadorian giants Barcelona SC. In an official statement, Inter Miami confirmed that the club will play several friendly matches in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Inter Miami’s pre-season tour will begin in Peru. On 24 January, they will take on Alianza Lima at the Alejandro Villanueva Stadium in Lima.
On 31 January, Messi and his teammates will face Atlético Nacional in Colombia—the two-time Copa Libertadores champions and 18-time domestic league winners.
The final match of the South American tour will be played in Ecuador. Inter Miami will take on the formidable Barcelona SC at Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha in Guayaquil. In that match, Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez will come up against another “Barcelona,” bringing added excitement to the fixture.
