Inter Miami beat Nashville 3-1 in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup round-of-16 match as Lionel Messi scored a goal and made an assist before leaving the field due to a leg injury.
The win and 5-3 advantage in aggregate goals in the total-goals series led Inter Miami to advance to the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals.
In the match on Wednesday night, the Argentinian star found Luis Suarez, his former Barcelona teammate, for a goal that opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, then added a first-half goal and gave Inter Miami an early 2-0 lead, reports aljazeera.com.
The Argentinian great was replaced by Robert Taylor in the 50th minute as he was dealing with a mild leg injury.
Later, coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino revealed that Messi was taken off as a precaution as his leg injury started bothering him during the game.
However, Messi’s replacement Robert Taylor scored in the 63rd minute to give Inter Miami a 3-0 lead.
This season, Messi has missed just one game, where he rested Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Montreal.
Coach Martino said the Argentinian star is likely to miss the team’s MLS match against DC United on Saturday.
