Messi strains hamstring, Inter Miami beats Nashville 3-1, advances to Champions Cup quarters
The Inter Miami marquee shined brightly Wednesday night with all its high-profile names in the starting lineup against Nashville SC for the deciding leg of the Champions Cup Round of 16: Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba.
Well-rested and highly motivated, Suarez and Messi scored first half goals and Robert Taylor added a third after intermission to lead Miami to a 3-1 victory. Combined with a 2-2 tie on the road in the first leg, Inter Miami advanced to the quarterfinals of the $5 million tournament with a commanding 5-3 aggregate advantage.
Miami will face either FC Cincinnati or Mexican team Monterrey, who play their Round of 16 second leg on Thursday at 10:15 p.m. in Guadalupe, Mexico. Monterrey won the opening leg 1-0. The first leg of the quarterfinals is April 2-4.
But all was not good news for Inter Miami on Wednesday. Messi left the game in the 50th minute with a mild strain of his right hamstring, according to coach Tata Martino. He will undergo tests and Martino said he doesn’t expect Messi to be available for the league game on the road Saturday against D.C. United.
“We didn’t want to take any risks,” Martino said. “We wanted to see if he could hang on a bit more, but it was bothering him so we preferred to take him out of the game.”
Messi has a particularly busy few weeks as the Argentine national team has friendly matches March 22 against El Salvador in Philadelphia and March 25 against Costa Rica in Los Angeles. Miami has league leagues Saturday at D.C. and the following Saturday at New York Red Bulls. Then, a March 30 home game against NYCFC and the Champions Cup quarters first week of April.
Messi, 36, sat out Sunday’s loss to Montreal in order to rest after playing the full 90 minutes the first four games. He came out in top form against Nashville, as did Suarez, Busquets, and Alba. Suarez and Busquets had played just 25 minutes in the Sunday game, so they had fresh legs.
The four ex-Barcelona teammates delighted the pink-clad Chase Stadium crowd with passing sequences perfected over years of playing together. At times, they looked like a human pinball machine, finding each other at perfect angles in tight spaces.
Miami’s first goal came in the eighth minute when Alba made a perfect pass from the left to an awaiting Messi, who quickly sent a through ball to an open Suarez, who knocked it to the right post with the outside of his right boot.
Messi doubled the lead in the 23rd minute with a quick rifle of a shot from inside the penalty area with an assist from Diego Gomez, who penetrated the Nashville defense with a powerful run.
Tata Martino kept the same lineup to start the second half. Miami lost a bit of its edge after Messi left the field, but his replacement Robert Taylor gave the team a three-goal cushion with a header from the center of the box off a perfect cross from Suarez.
“Suarez got the ball and he has the composure to pick out the right pass,” Taylor said. “I cannot remember who made the run across to create space for me, but it was a perfect ball from (Suarez) to me and I finally got my header in.”
Observations from the game…
Inter Miami Took A Dip Without Messi
It goes without saying that Inter Miami with Messi is better than Inter Miami without Messi. But it was quite apparent on Wednesday, as it was at the tail end of last season when the Argentine star sat out a string of games with a hamstring injury. That should be a concern if he misses the next few league games.
Asked how he felt when Messi left the game, Nashville coach Gary Smith smiled and said: “Firstly, thank goodness. He has such a huge influence on the rest of the team. Yes, they have very good players, but there is no one that can do what he can do. There is an infinite amount of trust in his decisions, his technique, his ability. As soon as he gets on the ball everyone else goes into gear, and that’s a real problem.”
“There isn’t anyone else, maybe one or two players in the league, who have that sort of confidence from the rest of the teammates, and nobody on the level of this guy.”
Smith felt the Miami performance “took a dip” in Messi’s absence.
“That gave us a little bit of incentive, a little bit of energy,” Smith said.
Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar scored in the 80th minute, but VAR ruled that he was offside, and the goal was disallowed. Sam Surridge finally got Nashville on the board in the third minute of stoppage time.
Attacking is in Miami’s DNA
There was some question whether Inter Miami, holding a tiebreaker advantage with two away goals against Nashville, would come out more conservative in the second leg. After all, the onus was on Nashville to score and Miami to defend.
Not a chance. Inter Miami came out of the game attacking and took control of the game early. It was a wise tactic.
“I do not think with the quality that we have in the team that we should go out thinking we need to hold onto away goals,” Taylor said. “I think we should go for the win every time. We know we have the best players in the world with us, so why would we go out there (any differently)?”
Asked if he was surprised Miami didn’t start more conservatively, Nashville coach Smith said: “Have we ever seen Miami conservative? I don’t think that’s in their DNA. They have exceptional players we’ve all seen. I fully expected the guys in their group to want to take full advantage and they started very, very bright. And, with all honesty, we were unable to contain that first 15 minutes.”
Miami midfielder Redondo said the quick early goals were critical: “I think the key was us scoring the early goal. After that we knew how to manage the flow of the game, and we also capitalized on the other scoring options we had.”
