Inter Miami's charge towards what they hope will be a first-ever MLS title continues this weekend when they welcome St. Louis City to Chase Stadium. The Galacticos of Miami are doing what was expected of them so far and they lead the Eastern Conference by a point. Meanwhile, St. Louis are languishing in 11th place in the Western Conference.
The home side suffered a shock defeat against Atalanta United last time out and they will be looking for an instant bounce-back victory to get them back on track. That could spell danger for the away side, who come into this one with very little confidence.
How the bookies view it: Inter to run riot
Inter Miami are heavy favourites coming into the match which shouldn't come as a huge surprise when you consider the quality of both teams. Inter Miami are priced at 4/9 to get the three points with Bet365 while St Louis City are priced at 9/2. If you fancy the away side to nick a draw then you can get 15/4.
Recent head-to-head: Two new clubs to do battle
While most people will know that Inter Miami are a new franchise in the MLS, it may come as a surprise to learn that St Louis City are even newer with last season being their debut campaign. As a result, these two teams have only met once before in competitive action due to them both playing in opposite conferences.
In the one and only previous encounter last season, St Louis came out on top in a commanding 3-0 victory. However, a lot has changed at Inter Miami since then so a repeat result would be a huge shock on Sunday.
Players to watch: More Messi magic?
Every time Inter Miami take to the field, Lionel Messi is unquestionably the main man to watch even in a team that contains other footballing greats such as Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets. Messi has been electric this season and leads the way in terms of assists (12) in the MLS. On top of that, he sits in third in the race for the Golden Boot with 11 goals.
For St Louis City, they will be delighted that star playmaker, Eduard Löwen is fit again after a long layoff. The German recorded 14 assists last season as St Louis topped the Western Conference and has been a big miss so far this season.
Predicted lineups
Inter Milan are missing two Argentinians for the match against St Louis but fortunately for them, neither of them are Lionel Messi. Facundo Farias and Nicolas Freire both miss out, as do Diego Gomez and Robbie Robinson. For St Louis, only Chris Durkin is unavailable and that's due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
Inter Miami: Callender – Weigandt, Aviles, Kryvtsov, Alba – Busquets, Solari, Rojas – Messi, Suarez, Taylor
St Louis City: Burki – Totland, Parker, Nilsson, Hiebert – Durkin, Blom – Pompeu, Lowen, Alm – Klauss
Anything else catch the eye?
Given Inter Miami's firepower at the top of the pitch, it is unsurprising that they score so many goals. They have scored 3+ goals in five of their last nine matches and they are priced at 6/5 to score over 2.5 goals on Sunday.
St Louis City have lost their last three matches and they have found goals hard to come by, scoring just twice across those three games. Inter Miami are 13/8 to keep a clean sheet.
This MLS match between Inter Miami and St. Louis City will be played on Jun 2, 2024 and kick off at 00:30. Check below for our tipsters best Inter Miami vs St. Louis City prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
