Sergio Busquets regretted the elimination of the Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup and the absence of Lionel Messiwho has been carrying an ankle injury since the Copa América final on July 14. “We know the difference that Leo makes, I wish we could have had him with us. But football is like that: injuries, setbacks…”, he explained in the mixed zone.
“It’s very important for us and it was a shame not to be able to enjoy it because I’m sure everything would have been different and we would have had a much better chance,” he added. Inter Miami lost 3-2 in the round of 16 of the Leagues Cup to Columbus Crew, who were down 0-2 with half an hour to go and came back 3-2 with three goals in 13 minutes.
Gerardo Martino’s team is the current champion of the Leagues Cup but will not be able to repeat as champion. “We had a very good first half, we went into the break with a positive result. From then on they brought on more offensive players. We knew they were going to attack, that they were going to try to score goals, but that we were also going to have our chances, especially on the counterattack,” analysed Busquets.
“And I think that’s what happened: the result was decided by that, because they were more accurate in front of goal and could have come back. We had many counterattacks in which we lacked that final pass, that final finish that didn’t come. It’s a shame, we wanted to continue in the tournament, we fought until the end,” added the Spaniard.
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Inter Miami now only has to fight for the MLS this year, a competition in which they are the leaders of the Eastern Conference. “We all have to become a solid team, which we hope we can achieve because now we are playing for the league,” said the former FC Barcelona player.
“We have no choice but to prioritise the league. We are in a very good position, hopefully we can maintain this pace until the end and be first and then focus on the playoffs in the best way possible. Hopefully we can all be back at full strength, in this case Leo as soon as possible. We don’t know when he will be able to be back but hopefully he will recover as soon as possible because we are sure that with all of us we are a very difficult team to beat,” he concluded.
