FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Lionel Messi's first-half brace propelled Inter Miami to a 4-0 victory over Nashville SC at Chase Stadium on Saturday to advance in the MLS playoffs for the first time in club history.
Tadeo Allende wrapped up the win with a quickfire double of his own late in the second half, with Messi providing the assist for the second.
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With the win, Miami clinched the Round 1 series 2-1 to progress to the Eastern Conference semifinal and a meeting with No. 2 seed FC Cincinnati.
"I think the team played almost perfectly," Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. "I'm not saying perfect, there are always things to improve, but we were at a very, very high level in every area, very intense from the first minute, very organized and very good at pressing high.
"The truth is, I'm very grateful to these players because we perfectly understood what was at stake today, the importance of being able to put the club in a place and in a phase it had never been in before, and they really did a very good job."
Inter Miami entered the game at a disadvantage without Luis Suárez, who watched from the sidelines after receiving a one-game suspension from the MLS disciplinary committee for violent conduct in Game 2 of the series last week.
Despite the absence of the veteran striker, Inter Miami earned the early lead in the 10th minute after Messi took possession of the ball in the final third and fired a shot into the lower-right corner of the goal.
Messi then doubled the score late in the second half with the help of Mateo Silvetti, the player whom Mascherano chose to replace Suárez in the starting 11. For Silvetti, a 19-year-old who hails from Messi's hometown of Rosario, Argentina, it was an extra special moment.
"Maybe right now one doesn't realize it, but tomorrow, it will hit me [that I assisted Messi for a goal]," Silvetti said. "It's an honor already to share the day to day with Messi, to have moments, share the field and add minutes with him and all my other teammates that are elite."
Miami continued to dominate as the game progressed, and Allende scored two goals in a span of five minutes to clinch its ticket to the next round.
Despite Nashville's 11 shots throughout the match, goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo kept the team's first clean sheet of the 2025 postseason.
Messi, fresh off winning the Golden Boot during the regular season, finished the three-game series with five goals. He has 12 goals in just seven career matches against Nashville, the most against any MLS opponent since his arrival in July 2023.
Miami, the No. 3 seed in the East, now prepares to face FC Cincinnati at TQL Stadium in Ohio for the one-game Eastern Conference semifinal. Inter Miami previously failed to advance out of the first round of the playoffs, falling at the opening hurdle in 2022 and 2024.
In 2024, Messi's first full season with the club, Miami was ousted in its opening-round series in three games against Atlanta after winning the Supporters' Shield.
Mascherano acknowledged the scars of last year's failure loomed over the squad as it faced another Game 3.
"I'm really happy because I think the team, with its mistakes and its strengths, has always given its all throughout the season," he said. "We've had some very, very good stretches during the regular season and in other competitions as well. And it would have been very unfair to be eliminated at this stage.
"I'm also happy for the club itself because after what happened last year, there was a bit of a feeling in the air, and you could sense that it could happen again. I think now there's nothing better than looking ahead; that's all in the past, forgotten, and being able to look forward. I'm not one to show off a lot, nor am I one to go from one extreme to the other. This continues for us."
Saturday's victory ensured at least one more game in the career of Messi's longtime teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, who have both announced they will retire at the end of the season.
The Inter Miami-Cincinnati winner will play either top-seeded Philadelphia Union or fifth-seeded New York City FC in the East final.
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN Research was used in this report.