Messi may return for Inter Miami Champions Cup quarterfinal vs. Monterrey on Wednesday
Lionel Messi may return to the Inter Miami lineup in time for the highly anticipated Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal against Mexican team Monterrey.
The Argentine star, who missed the past three games with a hamstring strain, trained with the rest of the team on Tuesday morning and coach Tata Martino did not rule him out of Wednesday’s home leg of the quarterfinal at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Martino said a decision on Messi’s availability will be made on game day.
“We still have 24 hours to make the decision,” Martino said. “Leo has had an injury, we have been managing that, and even though it is a very important game for us tomorrow, it is only early April and we don’t want to take any unnecessary risk. We have to see what is best for Leo and from there we will make the correct decision.”
The Argentine star has not played since March 13, when he left the Champions Cup Round of 16 home game against Nashville in the 50th minute.
Martino had said the aim was to have Messi healthy in time for the two-leg Champions Cup quarterfinal. The home leg is on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (FS1, TUDN). Tickets were going for $75 to $1,300 on the secondary market and will likely go up as word gets out that Messi may play.
The teams meet again in Monterrey on April 10 at 10:30 p.m.
The winner of this round advances to the semifinal and will play the winner of Columbus Crew vs. Tigres of Mexico. The winner of the June 2 final takes home $5 million in prize money and qualifies for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, being held in the United States.
Inter Miami has struggled in Messi’s absence and his return would provide a boost.
The team went winless for the seven games he missed at the end of last season and has lost two of the three games he sat out so far this year. Miami is undefeated in the five games he played this year, three league games and two Champions Cup matches. He scored five goals and had two assists in those games.
Messi’s close friend and former Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez has been doing his part during Messi’s absence. He has scored seven goals over nine games across all competitions, and has five assists. Although he prefers playing alongside his friend, he feels Inter Miami should be strong enough to win without him.
“Obviously, (Messi) makes a difference, we all know that,” he said. “We’ll wait until tomorrow to see if he’s there or not, but if he’s not, we’ll do it like we did the other day and win the games without him. If he’s there, we’ll enjoy it more.”
Messi is not the only Miami player who has missed recent games due to injury. Center backs Nico Freire and Sergiy Kryvtsov were both out with hamstring issues for the NYCFC game, forcing Martino to use a makeshift back line that included midfielder Sergio Busquets as a center back. Kryvtsov is ruled out again on Wednesday, while Freire will be a game-day decision, Martino said.
Midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi has not played yet this season after hernia surgery and Facundo Farias will miss 2024 after tearing his ACL in preseason. New signing Fede Redondo, who played well in his first two games, went down with a meniscus tear in his knee and will miss two months.
“We have to face (Wednesday’s) match with no excuses,” Martino said. “The reality is we are have had to deal with a lot of injuries. The feeling inside the locker room is we are always one week away from a full squad, then something else happens....but we expect to compete well with the absences that we have.”
Miami will need its strongest roster against Monterrey, one of the top teams in the region and a team that includes many Mexican national team players, some of whom played for Martino when he was Mexico’s coach from 2019-2022. Los Rayados, as the team is known, have won the Champions League trophy five times, the last time in 2021, and cruised through the previous Champions Cup rounds to reach the quarterfinals.
Monterrey’s leading scorer is U.S. national team forward Brandon Vazquez, who began his career with Atlanta United under Martino, then played for Cincinnati and signed with Monterrey this season. He has scored five goals in six league games for Monterrey and has tallied three Champions Cup goals in four games, including one against his former Cincinnati teammates.
Their roster also includes four Argentine players, two from Uruguay and Spanish midfielder Sergio Canales, who played most of his career in Spain and with whom Suarez, Messi, Busquets and Alba will be familiar. Canales made stops at Racing Santander, Real Madrid, Valencia, Real Sociedad, and Betis.
“They have many quality players, including a No. 10 who is a difference maker, played many years in Europe, he’s a very intelligent player and obviously he has qualities that draw your attention,” Suarez said of Canales. “We know what their strengths are, and we know their weaknesses and we have to prepare for a very tough game.”
Monterrey beat Comunicaciones of Guatemala by a 7-1 aggregate score and got past FC Cincinnati 3-1 in the Round of 16. The team is also doing well in Liga MX so far this season, sitting in second place behind Club America.
Inter Miami reached the quarterfinals with a 2-2 tie and a 3-1 victory over Nashville.
Over the past six games across all competitions Monterrey has five wins and a tie while Inter Miami has two wins, two losses, and two ties.
“These are the types of games we like to play,” Suarez said. “We have to show why we’re here. There’s no value in just having big names, we have to prove what we are on the field over 180 minutes. We have to leave it all on the field against a very formidable opponent like Monterrey.”
