Lionel Messi missed out on making his Inter Miami return last night after the team suffered a first-half red card.
Messi was named on the bench for the home game with Charlotte FC and seemed set to appear for the Florida team for the first time since February 25.
But goalkeeper Oscar Ustari was sent off after 35 minutes for a foul on former Crystal Palace and Manchester United winger Wilfried Zaha, prompting a change of approach from coach Javier Mascherano.
The 10 men battled hard and won the game 1-0 thanks to Tadeo Allende’s excellent strike in the first minute of the second half.
🤳 Remember the name: TADEO ALLENDE 💥 pic.twitter.com/ZeM809MJYw
— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) March 9, 2025
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No risks taken with Lionel Messi
Mascherano explained his reasoning for keeping Messi, who has been rested recently to manage his workload, on the sidelines.
“The reality is that in the case of Leo maybe we had thought about giving him minutes in the game,” Mascherano said.
“But since the game was played with one man less, and taking into consideration the time he has without playing, we thought that the best thing was to preserve it. We didn’t want to risk it.”
On the win, the Argentine added: “I want to keep the resilience. Try to go forward. I think today we showed a lot of team spirit. We need to continue in this way. Keep working together, working hard. We know that maybe we believe that we think that we are nice and beautiful. We are wrong. We need to keep going forward.”
Messi set for Caribbean comeback
Messi, 37, could return for the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup round-of-16 tie against Cavalier in Jamaica on Thursday night.
Miami lead 2-0 from the first game but Mascherano is not taking their Caribbean opponents lightly.
“It’s a long season for us. We have a tough game Thursday. Will be difficult, difficult in Jamaica,” Mascherano added. “So we have to be ready. It’s not easy. We are playing every three, four days. We are tired. The squad is not too long. We have some injuries, but we keep going forward.
“In football, we have two ways: excuses or results. And we have to choose results.”
