FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Lionel Messi raised the Golden Boot. He then got Inter Miami started with his head.
Messi opened the scoring with a diving header in the first half, then capped the scoring in the 96th minute as Inter Miami opened the Major League Soccer playoffs with a 3-1 win over Nashville SC in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference best-of-three first-round series on Friday night.
Messi and Ian Fray had the assists on Tadeo Allende’s second-half tally for Inter Miami, which now gets two chances to advance out of the first round for the first time in Messi’s 2 1/2-year tenure with the team. Game 2 is at Nashville on Nov. 1. Game 3, if necessary, would in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 8.
Hany Mukhtar got Nashville’s goal off a free kick in the 101st minute. It was the final play of the match.
The win capped a big couple of days for Inter Miami, which announced Messi’s three-year contract extension on Thursday.
“I don’t think we ever could have imagined that Leo would have been able to deliver for this club, for this city and for this league the way he has,