In the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup round-of-16 match on Thursday, Inter Miami
overcame a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 thanks to a goal from Luis Suarez in stoppage time.
Lionel Messi had earlier cut the deficit.
Before Miami’s comeback, Canadian winger Jacob Shaffelburg had put Nashville ahead 2-0 with a pair of brilliant strikes.
With a spot in the quarterfinals at stake, Miami is the clear favourite for Wednesday’s return match in South Florida thanks to the goals from the former Barcelona attackers, who had each scored a brace in the team’s 5-0 victory against Orlando on Saturday.
Miami had defeated Nashville in the League Cup final on penalties the previous year, and Messi, Busquets, and Suarez were back for their CONCACAF regional competition debuts.
Federico Redondo, a recent addition from Argentina, made his midfield debut for coach Gerardo
“Tata” Martino, who was without Jordi Alba, a Spanish player, due to sickness.
However, Miami found themselves reeling shortly after Shaq Moore of Nashville surged through
from midfield and found Shaffelburg, who sent a left-footed shot from the edge of the box that
beat Drake Callender.
Two minutes after the half, the Canadian, who has a noticeable mullet hairdo, extended the lead with
an even greater finish. He cut in from the left before launching an unstoppable shot with his right foot high into the far top corner.
However, Miami came back strong, and six minutes later, Messi scored his signature left-footed curler
to tie the score.
Despite having four players near to him, Suarez set him up on the edge of the box, and the World
Cup winner from Argentina managed to find room to move the ball to his left foot and eventually
find the corner.
The 30,109 spectators went crazy as Moore, cutting in from the right, beat Callender. However, a VAR review revealed that Moore had been just barely offside earlier in the action, and the goal was disallowed.
However, in the midst of stoppage time, the ball was passed to Busquets on the right, and the seasoned Spanish player floated in a cross that Suarez headed home.
“It puts us in a strong position for the next 90 minutes, which will be just as difficult as this one and the games we have played with Nashville,” Martino stated.
“We jeopardised the game at the beginning of the first and second halves… Our opponent was more intense than we were before we entered the game.
“We had ten or fifteen minutes in either half where we could have lost the game.
We had excellent ball control and ball circulation for an hour, and we had opportunities to score, but
we might also be behind 3-0 seven or eight minutes into the second half,” the player stated.
Although Moore’s goal was disallowed, Nashville’s English manager Gary Smith was nonetheless
pleased with his team’s performance and thought they should have had a penalty in the first half.
What a crazy game. I’m quite proud of the guys’ effort; despite playing against a very good squad, we produced a tonne
of great work. I don’t see why we can’t travel to Miami and perform a live show. This tie still has a lot of life left in it, he stated.
Earlier on Thursday, the Mexican team won 1-0 in their first leg match thanks to a goal from
USA attacker Brandon Vazquez, who was back at his old team, Cincinnati.
After Corey Baird’s strike in the 18th minute put the ball in the net for Cincinnati, who had opened
the game strongly, it was disallowed for offside.
However, the Liga MX squad had the advantage six minutes later, and Vazquez, a former home favourite, had made the breakthrough.
The striker was spotted in the box by Maximiliano Mesa, and his right-footed attempt slipped past Cincinnati custodian Roman Celentano, who had a better chance.
Vazquez’s goal, which strengthened his cause for a spot
in Gregg Berhalter’s USA roster for the upcoming Nations League Final Four, was his seventh in
11 games since joining the five-time CONCACAF winners.
After a VAR review determined that Rodrigo Aguirre had struck Baird off the ball just before a
corner, Monterrey was reduced to ten men in the 70th minute.
