There was a 0-0 draw between Inter Miami and Orlando City on Wednesday night at Inter & Co Stadium. Lionel Messi did not play because he hurt his left knee in Saturday’s 3-2 MLS win over Montreal.
When asked about playing without Messi after the game, Miami boss Gerardo Martino said the same things he had said before when the team wasn’t playing with its star player.
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“There is something that when Leonel Messi is absent cannot be recreated and is impossible to accomplish, which is his capacity to play in the last 25 meters of the field,” Martino said after the match. “This can be felt at both the Inter Miami game today and the FC Barcelona game 10 years ago.” After all the good work that went into the game, Messi had to finish the play. Messi finds a way to win when the other team stays back and protects.
Messi was replaced by Robert Taylor in Gerardo “Tata” Martino started with four players, and Luis Suarez and Matias Rojas led the attack. However, the team had a hard time scoring, and they only had three shots on goal all game. When Miami beat Sporting Kansas City 3-2 on April 13, Jordi Alba left the game and hadn’t played in five weeks. He came on as a replacement in the 64th minute.
Read More: The duration of Lionel Messi’s contract with Inter Miami. New information disclosed by MLS.
Martino said that Messi’s injury wasn’t too bad and that he expected him to be back soon, even though they lost to Orlando.
“He had a bother in his knee, but he trained every day that the medical team and physical trainers wanted him to after the knock he suffered during the game against Montreal,” said Martino.
Because he felt bad about it, he got tests done, and the results were great. We knew it was best for him to miss today’s game because he had three games this week and was hard for him to move. It is planned that he will play against D.C. United on Saturday, but it will still depend on how the injury changes. He worked out again today and did well. We won’t take any chances, so we’ll see.”
With 28 points from 14 games, Miami stays in first place in the Eastern Conference with this win. Orlando falls to 10th place with this point.
When Messi doesn’t play, the team is 2-4-7 (W-D-L) in all events since his debut. When he does play, the team is 15-7-3. Inter Miami is currently in first place in the Eastern Conference with 28 points after 14 games. Messi has set a league record by scoring 12 goals and setting up 13 others to start the season.
