Despite the fact that their captain Lionel Messi retired injured in the 37th minute of the game, Inter Miami managed to get an important victory from four goals to zero at the expense of Toronto FC and kept his aspirations alive to advance to the MLS playoffs.
The 'Herons' started the duel with their three ex-Azulgranas (in addition to Messi there were Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) but they barely In the 34th minute, coach Gerardo Martino had to replace Alba by Noah Allen, and shortly afterward the team's great star, Messi, left the DRV PNK Stadium field, replaced by Robert Taylor.
Fortunately for Inter, a compatriot of the '10', Facundo Farías volleyed a bad clearance by the visiting team's goalkeeper and opened the scoring at the end of that first half.
"It wasn't a good game. We had to make two forced substitutions," said Martino at the end of the fateful period. "We will evaluate them (Messi and Alba) in the coming days."
The additional time served to strengthen the triumph of Miamians. At 54' Taylor put a right cross into the Canadian franchise's goal, and at 73' young Benjamín Cremaschi was in charge of guaranteeing success in the duel. Already in the 87th minute, Taylor himself put definitive figures to the score.
It is fair to point out that in Toronto FC two old acquaintances from the 'azzurri' teams of recent years lined up at the start, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi.
The Argentine star was a doubt before the clash due to the discomfort suffered after the South American qualifying match against Ecuador, and without his presence the group had shipwrecked over the weekend contra Atlanta United.
In exactly one week, Inter Miami will settle the final of the US Open Cup against Houston Dynamo, a commitment for which they will undoubtedly require the services of their star figure, whose presence by then is currently an unknown.
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