Lionel Messi and Inter Miami pull off 3-goal comeback to beat LAFC and reach CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals

Lionel Messi leads Inter Miami to dramatic CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals with three-goal comeback win over LAFC.

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are headed to the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals and it took a dramatic three-goal comeback to get there.

Messi scored twice, including a penalty kick in the 84th minute, to lift Inter Miami past LAFC 3-1 on Wednesday night — good enough for a 3-2 aggregate win in the two-leg series. The Herons needed three unanswered goals to win the series and ensure that they wouldn't lose a tiebreaker.

And for Messi, the series clincher was reminiscent of how he led Argentina past France in the World Cup final in 2022. He scored two goals in that match, one on a penalty kick — then another in the penalty-shot shootout that decided the final. And those goals came against France's Hugo Lloris, who was also in net for LAFC on Wednesday night.

Lloris couldn't solve Messi in the World Cup final — and couldn't in this one, either. When the final whistle sounded, Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano punched the air in celebration.

Oscar Ustari made two huge stops in the final minutes for Inter Miami, who will face either the Mexican club Pumas or the Vancouver Whitecaps in the tournament’s semifinals. The first leg of that two-leg matchup is set to start on either April 22, 23 or 24.

Aaron Long scored in the ninth minute to give LAFC a 1-0 lead, but it put Inter Miami in a much deeper hole than that. Inter Miami lost the series opener at LAFC 1-0, so Long’s goal not only gave LAFC a 2-0 aggregate lead — but it also gave his club control of the away-goals tiebreaker.

That meant Inter Miami needed at least three goals from there to advance. It might have seemed unlikely.