FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — From a dream start to a nightmare finish, the Los Angeles Football Club was knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday night, falling to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, 3-1, (3-2 on aggregate) following a frantic second leg at Chase Stadium.
A two-goal game from Messi, including the game-winning penalty in the 84th minute, helped Miami survive more than 180 tantalizing minutes between the MLS teams.
Holding a 1-0 lead after last week’s opening encounter at BMO Stadium, LAFC added to its tally 10 minutes into the match.
With away goals serving as the competition’s first tiebreaker, LAFC accomplished what Miami could not on April 2, as Aaron Long’s second-chance goal offered the Black & Gold an edge that forced the hosts to score three in regulation presuming Steve Cherundolo’s team would not get on the board again.
Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari punched away a corner kick, leaving midfielder Mark Delgado room to float in a soft half-volley back into the box.
First-leg goal scorer Nathan Ordaz stood next to Aaron Long, and when the young forward got a touch on it the ball fell to the veteran defender, who swooped it into the upper corner.
Other than several good opportunities for Denis Bouanga down the left side the remainder of the half, LAFC adopted a more defensive posture leading to the break. Miami took advantage by ramping up its pressure, and the Herons unleashed a torrent of corner kicks while Messi worked to free up his teammates.
The Argentine superstar took his first of four shots on goal in the 27th minute, prompting a simple save for Hugo Lloris.
At the half-hour mark, Miami’s luck turned following a yellow card against fullback Ryan Hollingshead for a foul on Messi in a perfect free kick position from 25 yards out. Messi, however, was too anxious to score and unleashed a shot that found the net before Mexican referee Cesar Ramos restarted the action.
The iconic attacker was not denied five minutes later in the wake of Miami’s best sequence of the opening half, which saw the hosts carve up LAFC en route to a classy finish inside the box by Messi.
Miami put the screws to LAFC in the 61st minute when defender Noah Allen chipped the ball to the 6-yard box, where Federico Redondo, starting for the suspended Sergio Busquets, flashed across the face of goal.
Lloris read Redondo’s run and came out to meet him, but the Argentine midfielder missed the ball entirely. It bounced off the grass and into the net despite Hollingshead’s best effort to clear it off the line.
The sequence set the match on a razor’s edge, but LAFC still was in a position to advance.
That advantage momentarily evaporated in the 67th minute after Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez connected on a header off a Messi curler into the box. Yet a video review confirmed that Suarez had been a step offside, and the host’s go-ahead effort was erased, setting off a frenzied reaction from Miami head coach Javier Mascherno.
As he’s done his entire life, Messi proved to be too much.
Earning a corner kick 40 yards from the goal, Messi’s take was headed high into the air by Marlon. As the ball returned to earth it ricocheted off the Brazilian’s right arm, earning a video review and confirmation that Messi would have a penalty against Lloris for the first time scoring against the French national team captain in the classic 2022 FIFA World Cup final.
Messi delivered, deftly lifting his shot to the left of Lloris to give Miami the decisive goal it had to have – Messi’s 42nd goal in 48 appearances across all competitions since joining Inter Miami.
The result ended LAFC’s attempt to reach a record third consecutive trip (in three tries) to the continental tournament final, which it lost to Tigres in 2020 and Leon in 2023.
More to come on this story.
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