Lionel Messi has scored eight goals in five games for Inter Miami. With a 4-0 win over Charlotte FC on Friday, Inter Miami cruised into the Leagues Cup playoffs.
In the 86th minute, the Argentine put in Miami’s fourth goal. It was a pretty easy win for Gerardo Martino’s team.
The seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or had one of his quieter games while wearing Miami’s pink shirt, but he still found the goal for his millions of fans.
In the 12th minute, Josef Martinez scored a penalty to give Miami the lead. In the 32nd minute, in-form Robert Taylor scored off a low cross from DeAndre Yedlin to give Miami a 2-0 lead.
In the first half, Charlotte was mostly happy to keep Messi and Spanish player Sergio Busquets from scoring. After halftime, Charlotte was more adventurous, and Patrick Agyemang, who came on as a replacement, should have scored a goal, but his close-range header went over the bar.
Right after that break, Miami made sure of the win when Diego Gomez sent a low cross to Messi in the middle, but Charlotte defender Adilson Malanda scored an own goal while trying to stop it.
The home crowd wasn’t able to celebrate Messi’s goal as they had planned because of Malanda’s bad fall, but they did get to three minutes before the end of the game.
North Carolina’s team was getting tired, so Leonardo Campana had time to look up and pass the ball to Messi for an easy goal.
The winner of Friday’s quarter-final game between Philadelphia Union and Mexican club Queretaro will play Miami in the semi-final.