Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted as Inter Miami shutout Atlanta

Lionel Messi scored two goals and was assisted by Jordi Alba to lead Inter Miami to a 4-0 win over Atlanta United on Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Messi, who sat out his home country Argentina’s friendly match against Venezuela a night earlier, started and helped Inter Miami (18-7-8, 62 points) guarantee themselves at least the No. 3 spot in the Eastern Conference with the win.

Inter Miami still has a chance to secure the No. 2 spot if it can finish with more points than FC Cincinnati, which also has 62 points. If the teams finish with the same number of points, Cincinnati will take the higher seed thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Atlanta United (5-16-12, 27 points), which eliminated Inter Miami in the first round of last season’s MLS play-offs, lost its third straight game and is winless in its past five games.

Both teams were short-handed due to the FIFA international period this week. But Messi, who opted to play for club over country this weekend, now leads the MLS with 26 goals, and his 18th assist tied San Diego’s Anders Dreyer for the league lead.

Messi’s first goal came in the 39th minute when Messi controlled a cross pass from Baltasar Rodriguez and curled in a shot towards the far top corner to break a scoreless deadlock. His second goal crowned the score in the 87th minute after an assist from Alba.

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In the 52nd minute, Messi created the chance that led to Miami’s second score when he threw a long ball across the pitch to Alba as he charged towards the Atlanta goal. Alba did the rest, throwing the ball over Atlanta goalkeeper Jayden Hibbert.

Luis Suarez added to the scoring in the 61st minute when he perfectly timed a shot after Atlanta’s high clearance attempt into the back of the net and headed past Hibbert. Inter Miami’s Rocco Rios Novo started in goal and registered the clean sheet.

Atlanta United, which has been plagued by injuries to key players this season, suffered another when Stian Gregersen was forced to leave the match in the 14th minute with what appeared to be a possible hamstring problem.

Published on October 12, 2025