One of Inter Miami’s and Lionel Messi’s biggest dreams slipped away once again. On a bittersweet night for the Argentine star, who reached the historic figure of 900 official goals, his team could only manage a 1-1 draw against Nashville SC. Due to the away goal rule, the Herons were eliminated from the Concachampions, leaving a void in their aspirations for 2026.
Despite the defeat of the reigning MLS champion, Nashville coach Brian Callaghan showed deep admiration for the Argentine captain, suggesting that Messi’s mere presence forced his players to raise their level of play to unsuspected levels.
Nashville coach’s praise for Messi
In the post-match press conference, Callaghan was asked by BOLAVIP US about Messi’s record and how it influenced the game plan. The strategist was blunt in recognizing that facing the best in the world was, ironically, the key for Nashville to achieve the “upset.”
It’s… you know, 900 goals is tremendous. Congratulations to him. He’s the best… When you come up against great teams and great players, the good thing is that you bring out the best in yourself and your team. And I think that’s what we did tonight
For Callaghan, the demand to mark Messi allowed his squad to show a competitive side that they might not have reached against another opponent: “Some of the best qualities we have could be seen,” he proudly added after securing passage to the next round.
Mascherano’s self-criticism after Inter Miami elimination
Inter Miami’s elimination hit the fans and the team’s locker room quite hard. After the draw, coach Javier Mascherano was quite self-critical and took all the blame for the result.
“The truth is that I have nothing to reproach the players for. They gave everything; the only one responsible for this elimination is me,” said the Argentine coach.
“We were hoping to be able to progress in the competition, in what was a very, very close tie… The game was clearly still in danger because it was very close against a strong opponent,” concluded the former footballer.
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