Lionel Messi was expected to start and captain Inter Miami when the club hosted the New England Revolution at Nu Stadium on April 25, 2026, a fixture scheduled to kick off at 7:30 PM ET and available live in the USA on Apple TV.
The match landed as a test of two streaks: Inter Miami have not previously won a regular-season game at Nu Stadium, yet arrived unbeaten since Angel Guillermo Hoyos took charge and on the back of four consecutive wins over New England. Miami’s most recent Nu Stadium outing ended in a 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls, and earlier in the month the club had also drawn Austin FC at the venue.
New England came to South Florida in form, having won four straight matches and most recently beating Atlanta United 2-1, collecting 15 points after eight matchdays and sitting just behind the conference leaders going into the trip. Marko Mitrovic is New England’s head coach; his club’s road form has been a concern despite strong results at Gillette Stadium.
Selection headlines came into sharp relief: Inter Miami were without Sergio Reguilon and Mateo Silvetti through injury, and also missing Yannick Bright and Telasco Segovia to suspension. Bright’s ban followed an April 18 disciplinary ruling tied to a violation of the league’s Non-Discrimination Policy. Sports Mole had listed Silvetti as questionable with a hamstring strain, and supplementary reports named Jackson Yueill, Brayan Ceballos, Matt Polster and Leonardo Campana as question marks because of lower-body issues. The supplementary player report also noted Campana would miss a fifth consecutive match and Polster his fourth.
The balance of information produces a clear tension: Hoyos’s Miami have not dropped a point under his stewardship and have won their last four meetings with New England, but that momentum has not translated into a regular-season victory at their own stadium. At the same time, New England’s recent run has lifted them into contention in the conference even as doubt remains over several starters’ availability — a situation New England coach Marko Mitrovic described as "day-to-day."
How the teams cope with absences and late fitness calls will shape the match more than preseason narratives. For Inter Miami, the question is whether Messi’s presence and Hoyos’s unbeaten run will finally yield the club’s first regular-season Nu Stadium win; for New England, it is whether the form that produced four straight wins and 15 points from eight matchdays will travel to Florida. Whichever side answers those questions on April 25 will leave Nu Stadium with the clearer claim to momentum heading into the next block of the season.
