This Group E encounter of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be played between Mexican outfit Monterrey and Italian giants Inter Milan on June 18 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, LA.
Here are our preview and prediction for the game.
FIFA Club World Cup 2025 | Group E: CF Monterrey Rayados vs FC Internazionale Milano | 06:30 IST, June 18
Monterrey play in Liga BBVA MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Nicknamed the Rayados (“Striped Ones”) for their traditional navy-blue striped kit, they featured in the previous edition of the Club World Cup — now rebranded as the FIFA Intercontinental Cup — in 2024/25 and won the CONCACAF Champions League in 2020/21. The recent season was underwhelming by their standards, with a fifth-place finish in the Apertura and a seventh-place finish in the Clausura.
Monterrey have a decent group of players in Sergio Canales, Óliver Torres, Héctor Moreno, Jesús Corona, Lucas Ocampos, Germán Berterame, and, most crucially, ex–Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos. Canales has been their standout player this past year despite their overall poor performance.
They’re currently managed by Domènec Torrent, a former assistant to Pep Guardiola. His playing style is possession-based, with aggressive pressing and counter-pressing. He wants his players to get the ball quickly after losing possession, and his usual formation of choice is a 4-2-3-1.
As for their opponents, Inter Milan are regarded as one of the biggest footballing institutions not just in Italy but around the world. In terms of their recent accolades, they won the Italian top flight, Serie A Enilive, in 2024/25, the Coppa Italia in 2022/23, and the Supercoppa Italiana in 2023. More recently, they narrowly missed out on a consecutive league title, while in the UEFA Champions League they were beaten in astounding fashion in the final — having been handed a 5–0 loss by Paris Saint-Germain.
Inter have a host of quality players in their squad: the likes of Lautaro Martínez, Marcus Thuram, Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolò Barella, Denzel Dumfries, Federico Dimarco, and Yann Sommer have been crucial to their campaign this season.
With former coach Simone Inzaghi having left for Al-Hilal, the Nerazzurri have hired Cristian Chivu as his replacement. Under Inzaghi, they played in a 3-5-2 formation, creating overloads in midfield and rotating positions in a dynamic fashion. While Chivu, a UCL winner with Inter in his playing days, has a similar tactical approach, he will want to use the CWC as an opportunity to stamp his own authority on the team.
Looking at the two teams, on paper there’s an unmissable gulf in quality. Inter have been one of the best-performing teams in Europe in recent seasons and boast defensive solidity with ample attacking prowess to beat any opposition on their day. Monterrey, meanwhile, have struggled domestically. Both teams have relatively new managers, but we expect Inter to have a more seamless transition and back them to win not just this game but also Group E.
Score Prediction: Monterrey 0–3 Inter Milan
Venue: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California
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