Lionel Messi Left SHOCKED As Inter Miami Go Out From MLS Playoffs After Atlanta United Cause Upset

It was a tough day at office for Lionel Messi as he missed opportunity to win ar trophy to his name. Lionel Messi's team Inter Miami lost 3-2 to ir rivals Atlanta United in ir MLS Playoffs match which led to elimination of top seed team from tournament. Lionel Messi and Matias Rojas both scored goals for Inter Miami but it was t eugh as Atlanta scored three against Messi's team to go ahe of Inter Miami in MLS playoffs. 

Messi And Inter Miami Eliminated From MLS Playoffs 

Lionel Messi walked off field and into tunnel leing to Inter Miami locker room a few seconds after final whistle blew, hardly any emotion on his face.

He didn’t want to see celebration.

Atlanta United ousted Messi and Major League Soccer’s biggest-spending team earlier than anyone imagined from MLS Cup playoffs. Jamal Thiaré scored twice, Bartosz Slisz’s heer in 76th minute was winner, and Atlanta United stunned Inter Miami 3-2 on Saturday night to win ir best-of-three first round playoff series in three games.

“re’s some fairy dust in our locker room, man,” Atlanta United goalkeeper Br Guzan said after stopping seven shots, some of m in spectacular fashion, and giving Slisz a big hug in response to his goal. “I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”

Two free kicks by Messi in final minutes hit wall of Atlanta defenders, and time eventually ran out on soccer’s most decorated player and his team. Messi’s heer — yes, heer — in 65th minute tied match at 2-2, but hosts never reclaimed le. Atlanta took le with an Inter Miami player down and hosts lobbying for play to be halted, but whistle never came and Slisz became one of many heroes for winners.

“It’s everybody. It’s a joint effort,” Atlanta United interim coach Rob Valenti said. “We talked about it before game, we talked about it all year long that it’s t going to be just one player. It’s a collective effort and that’s what happened tonight.  

It was fifth win-or-else victory for Atlanta United this season — starting with two must-win matches to keep hope alive at end of regular season against New York Red Bulls and Orlando City, n a wild-card match at Montreal, Game 2 of this series at home and n Saturday’s stunner.
Ninth-seeded Atlanta United will play . 4 Orlando City in Eastern Conference semifinal, while sixth-seeded New York City FC will face seventh-seeded New York Red Bulls in or East semifinal.

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. 2 Columbus was alrey gone. . 3 Cincinnati was ousted Saturday. And n came biggest surprise of all — . 1 Inter Miami’s season is over.

“Once you get in, this league is like this,” Valenti said. “You’ve got to have that belief in yourself because body on outside is going to believe in you.”

team with best record won MLS Cup four times in league’s first seven seasons. In 22 seasons since, top overall seed has gone on to win title only four more times.

And on paper, re may never have been a bigger upset than this one — a . 9 seed vs. a . 1 seed, and t just that, a . 1 seed with Messi in lineup. Messi’s $20,446,667 in total compensation from Inter Miami this season was about $5 million more than entire Atlanta payroll, and Inter Miami spent a record $41.7 million on payroll this season. 

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It got Inter Miami Supporters’ Shield, best regular-season record in MLS history and an invitation to next year’s Club World Cup, which came as surprise. But it didn’t even get club into Round 2 of playoffs, which will be remembered as a massive flop. 

Inter Miami Coach Speaks Out After Atlanta United Loss 

“Our biggest objective, we didn’t man,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Marti said.

Atlanta United fully believed it was going to pull this off.

For whatever reason, Atlanta was a matchup nightmare for Inter Miami this season. It beat Inter Miami three times, all of m with Messi in lineup; every or MLS team combined to get three wins over Inter Miami.

A five-minute, three-goal barr in first half set tone. Inter Miami opened scoring and Atlanta United punched right back — twice.

Thiaré was denied by goalpost 14 minutes into contest, when his deflection of a flick into box narrowly missed. And Inter Miami grabbed a 1-0 le about two minutes later — Messi was stopped by a diving Guzan, but Matías Rojas was re to lift rebound into net from a tight angle near right post. 

le didn’t last long. Thiaré saw to that.

He took a pass and was completely unmarked, firing into upper right corner to beat Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender — who h chance — to tie match in 19th minute. And t even two minutes later, Alexey Miranchuk tapped a pass to Thiaré who went over Callender for a 2-1 Atlanta le.

Just like that, best team in MLS regular-season history — and best player in sport’s history — was in big, big trouble. Inter Miami thought it tied match in 25th minute, only for Diego Gómez to be called offside. And hosts argued wildly for a penalty kick later in half, arguing that re was a handball in box (replay suggested y h a case), but y still went into half down 2-1.

“A very clear penalty,” Marti said. “ ref didn’t even check it.”

Messi tied it midway through second half, one kwing at time that it would be final hurrah for Inter Miami’s season. For some reason, Inter Miami’s pyrotechnics crew shot fireworks off as time expired, as if team was celebrating something.

On this night, it was Atlanta United that sent Inter Miami’s season up in smoke.

“I hope we’re t done w,” Valenti said. 

(With AP Inputs)