Lionel Messi recorded an assist, but missed a penalty and received a yellow card in Inter Miami's 1:4 defeat as a guest of Nashville in a match from the 19th round of the regular season in MLS, reports BTA. Nashville took the lead in the 16th minute through Andy Najar, and shortly after Inter Miami had a chance to equalize from the penalty spot. The penalty was awarded for a foul on Luis Suarez, but Messi was unable to overcome goalkeeper Brian Schwacke.
The Argentine aimed his shot towards the bottom left corner, but Schwacke reacted perfectly and saved. Sergio Reguilon was the first to reach the rebound and put it in the net, but after a lengthy VAR review, the goal was disallowed.
Messi still played a key role in the equalizer. In added time in the first half, he set up Telasco Segovia, who beat the goalkeeper to make it 1-1.
After the break, however, Nashville took the initiative and scored three more goals to reach a convincing 4-1.
Messi's penalty miss continues his "black streak", after he also failed to score from the penalty spot at the World Cup in the United States. The Argentine has already missed four penalty kicks in regular time in World Cup matches - against Iceland in 2018, Poland in 2022 and twice at the 2026 World Cup - against Austria and Egypt. Thus, Messi also holds a kind of anti-record - the most missed penalties in the history of the World Cup, having missed four of eight penalty kicks in regular time.
Interestingly, the story is different in the penalty shootout after extra time. Messi has made all three of his performances in penalty shootouts at World Cups.
Despite his failure against Nashville, the Argentine star still distinguished himself with an assist, but the evening ended with a heavy defeat for Inter Miami.