Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami Eliminated out of Major League Soccer Playoffs

Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami suffered a 3-2 loss to Atlanta United in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference series at Chase Stadium on Saturday night.

Forward Jamal Thiare got Atlanta ahead with a 19th minute goal, and struck again two minutes later. Lionel Messi looked to have saved Inter Miami after scoring a second-half headed equalizer, but Bartosz Slisz won the game and the series for Atlanta with a 76th minute header.

Messi had two chances to level the score in the dying, but his free-kicks hit the wall of Atlanta defenders.

Meanwhile, it was Matias Rojas who scored the first goal for Inter Miami in the 17th minute before Atlanta turned the game around with 2 goals within two minutes.

“There’s some fairy dust in our locker room”, said Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan. “On to the next one”, he added.

Inter Miami coach, Gerardo Martino said, “If you think about where we were in November last year, obviously there is progress as far as the club is concerned, not just the team. If you think about the expectations we had for this playoff, obviously we have fallen too short.”

“In this last part of the year we get used to achieving the objectives that we set for ourselves and we have not been able to achieve the most important one”, Martino told reporters.

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