Messi and Co. rue collapse

Lionel Messi labelled Inter Miami‘s remarkable collapse in the Florida derby as ‘unacceptable’ after they surrendered a three-goal lead to lose 4-3 at home to Orlando City.

Ian Fray’s fourth-minute header at the far post gave Miami the lead at Nu Stadium, which was doubled when Messi pulled back for Telasco Segovia to tap in a second.

Messi then seemingly put the game beyond doubt, producing superb skill on the edge of the area before bending into the bottom-left corner in trademark fashion.

Yet Miami saw opportunities to turn the game into a rout go begging as Maxime Crepeau made a series of stunning saves, and his efforts in keeping hope alive for Orlando were rewarded as Martin Ojeda curled home a stunning strike six minutes before half-time.

Ojeda then rifled in off the post in the 68th minute after excellent work from Adrian Marin, and he completed a hat-trick 11 minutes later with a superb penalty after Maximiliano Falcon bundled over Iago Teodoro when attempting to defend a free-kick.

And an incredible turnaround was completed in stoppage time when Ojeda left a throughball from namesake Braian Ojeda, allowing Tyrese Spicer to surge onto it and slot under Dayne St. Clair.

Messi sends Inter Miami message

The defeat leaves Miami third in the Eastern Conference in the MLS having won just two of their last five games. Orlando became the first MLS team since 2018 to win from three goals down.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Fray revealed that Messi had some home truths for his team-mates in the dressing room.

“Our captain spoke, and obviously gave us a bunch of words,” Fray said.

“He encouraged us for the next game and said this is unacceptable. We all agreed with him, it is unacceptable, and it won’t happen again for sure.”

Defender Noah Allen added: “The way the whole team was after the third goal was devastating, that’s something that needs to change.

“It was very poor from everyone, so we just got to move on from this.”