{"id":197677,"date":"2026-03-19T11:55:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197677\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:55:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:55:29","slug":"messi-espinoza-trade-goals-as-nashville-sc-eliminates-inter-miami-cf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197677\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi, Espinoza trade goals as Nashville SC eliminates Inter Miami CF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0 The 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup continued with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.concacaf.com\/champions-cup\/game-details?competition=e6rl4hongahbihxd3tpudespd&amp;season=6nv6rqeo7bc5utin12d6385w&amp;match=9tsut3ny3wrvis8zqqeghycr8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC playing to a 1-1 draw<\/a> in the Second Leg of their Round of 16 series, with the latter advancing on away goals, on Wednesday at Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">With a goalless draw in the first leg, Nashville SC came in with a slight advantage if it could score an away goal.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Lionel Messi broke the deadlock in the 7\u2019, sending a left-footed shot past Brian Schwake, to place Inter Miami up 1-nil on aggregate. The goal marked Messi\u2019s 900th overall in his professional career.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The visitors obtained the equalizer in the 74\u2019 through the boots of Cristian Espinoza, who struck off a half-volley in the box to score the goal that decided the series. Espinoza was named the Superior Player of the Match for his performance.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Nashville SC advances to the Quarterfinals, setting a new best for the club in the Concacaf Champions Cup. The MLS club awaits the winner of the Club Am\u00e9rica and Philadelphia Union series.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;\n    <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2022 Lionel Messi scored his eighth Concacaf Champions Cup goal and now has 10 direct goal contributions for Inter Miami CF (8 goals, 2 assists). Since his debut in the competition, only \u00c1ngel Sep\u00falveda (11) has more goal involvements.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2022 Nashville SC had less possession (40% to 60%) and fewer total shots (5 to 10) than Inter Miami CF in this match. However, they generated more expected goals (1.0 xG to 0.8 xG).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2022 Sergio Reguil\u00f3n (Inter Miami CF) assisted Lionel Messi\u2019s goal, recording his first assist in continental competition since 2020, when he played for Sevilla against Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League. This marked his Concacaf Champions Cup debut.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u2022 Despite elimination, Inter Miami CF remained unbeaten against Nashville SC in the Concacaf Champions Cup (W1 D3). It is the opponent they have faced the most without losing in the competition since their debut in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Cristian Espinoza recorded his fifth direct goal involvement for Nashville SC in the 2026 season across MLS and the Concacaf Champions Cup (2 goals, 3 assists). In those matches, Nashville remain unbeaten (W3 D1). The Argentine scored in this match and had assisted in his previous MLS game against Columbus Crew (1-1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0 The 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup continued with Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC playing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[91676,91677,26695,77559,1660,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-197677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-2026-concacaf-champions-cup","tag-adonai-escobedo","tag-andy-najar","tag-cristian-espinoza","tag-lionel-messi","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}