With a double of Lionel Messihe Inter Miami won 3-1 to Los Angeles FC (LAFC) and qualified with comeback for the semifinals of the Champions Cup of the Concacaf (3-2 in the global after the 1-0 of the first leg). It was a vibrant encounter, with controversy for an Inter Miami that began losing in the 10th minute, but that threw from heart and claw to turn around with three goals, since in this tournament it counts the extra value of goal as a visitor.
The team that trains Javier Mascherano looked at the precipice, but sang Victoria in a match in which Messi, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba played. Sergio Busquets did not participate by sanction. Inter Miami, which was eliminated last year in the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup against Monterrey, will face Vancouver Whitecaps, which eliminated Pumas.
Remaking some first and brief bars in which Inter Miami tried to overwhelm with its pressure, LAFC started better and made it clear that it was not going to settle for. Ryan Hollingshead began to open the left wing and Cengiz ünder stroked the Olympic goal, but the Angels sealed 0-1 in the 10 with a corner. The Argentine goalkeeper Óscar Ustari cleared the corner kick but in the second Yannick Bright center, in unforgivable error, he was hooked on the offside, which allowed Aaron Long to mark pleasure.
Suarez played again, but he didn’t see Puerta
The 0-1 left a very messy Inter Miami and seemed like a bunch of nerves. In fact, the FC could have sentenced the tie through Denis Bouanga, who punished Argentine Marcelo Weigandt again and again and who had several clear occasions to expand the score.
The Inter Miami rescue the usual: Messi. He scored a foul in 31 while Hugo Lloris still placed the barrier, but, after a few moments of great controversy and confusion, Mexican referee César Arturo Ramos, who in principle had validated the goal, finally annulled it. Four minutes later, Messi was compensated with a beautiful shot from the front that entered the Cloris squad.
There were moments of tension in the game
The 1-1 changed the dynamics of the party, with a refugee lafc behind and an Inter Miami that believed again. Messi and Suarez forced before the break for Lloris to show off with two paradons and Inter Miami was around the second with several corners in a row but the 1-1 reigned to the break.
The local siege continued in the resumption despite the fact that Hollingshead was very close to marking. Apart from that isolated opportunity, the visitors delivered the ball completely. The 2-1 arrived in 61 with some fortune for Inter Miami. In a chaotic play, the center of Noah Allen was looking for Argentine Federico Redondo in the heart of the area. Lloris’s departure was false and round did not touch the ball but the ball ended on the net.
Technical file
3 – Inter Miami: Óscar Ustari; Marcelo Weigandt, Maximiliano Falcón, Noah Allen, Jordi Alba; Federico Redondo, Yannick Bright (Benjamin Cremaschi, m.56), Telasco Segovia (Tomás Avilés, m.86); Tadeo Allende (Gonzalo Luján, m.86), Luis Suárez (Fafa Picault, M.95) and Lionel Messi
Coach: Javier Mascherano
1 – LAFC: Hugo Lloris; Sergi Palencia (Odin Holm, m. 87) Aaron Long, Marlon Santos, Ryan Hollingshead; Timothy Tillman, Igor Jesus, Mark Delgado; Cengiz ünder (Eddie Segura, m.75), Nathan Ordaz (Olivier Giroud, m.87) and Denis Bouanga
Coach: Steve Cherundolo
Goals: 0-1, Long (m. 9); 1-1, Messi (m. 35); 2-1, Allen (m. 61); 3-1, Messi, penalty (m. 84)
Referee: César Arturo Ramos (Mexico). He admonished Bright, Falcón, Hollingshead, Marlon and Segura
Incidents: Back of the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup played at the Chase Stadium of Fort Lauderdale (Florida).
Inter Miami was excited with a header from Suárez, but the VAR invalidated the goal for a very tight offside that Mascherano protested. The forces were scarce and became more complicated, but Inter Miami reached the 3-1 prize after a terrible failure of Brazilian Marlon Santos, who committed a penalty with one hand inside the area in a play in an harmless appearance. Messi faced Lloris again, as in the 2022 World Cup. And the 10 won again to place 3-1 in 84.
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Too conservative and Rácano during much of the meeting, the Lafc of Steve Cherundolo had to suddenly attack and had a couple of opportunities in the outcome with Bouanga and Olivier Giroud, but Ustari filed and Messi and company closed a memorable evening in Miami.
