FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Inter Miami suffered a stunning elimination from the first round of the 2024 Major League Soccer playoffs on Saturday night after a 3-2 loss to Atlanta United in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference series in Chase Stadium on Saturday evening.

Lionel Messi appeared to have saved Miami after scoring a second-half equalizer with a header, but Bartosz Slisz won the match and the series for Atlanta with a header in the 76th minute.

The goal was scored while Miami defender Tomás Avilés was on the field in his penalty area as his teammates called for the referee to stop the match so he could receive treatment.

Messi twice had chances to level the score with free kicks, but on both occasions his efforts were blocked by the Atlanta wall as Miami fell victim to perhaps the biggest upset in MLS playoff history.

Led by the Argentine star, Miami entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed after setting the MLS record for most points in a season, earning its first Supporters’ Shield. But it fell short against an Atlanta team that finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, 34 points behind Miami, and only qualified for the postseason with a final-day win to clinch a wild-card spot.

“In this last part of the year, we are getting used to achieving the goals we set for ourselves, but we have not been able to achieve the most important ones,” Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino told reporters.

The Herons defeated Atlanta 2-1 in the first game at home before losing Game 2 by the same score at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, forcing a decisive third game.

And Miami struggled again on Saturday against the Five Stripes. Although Matías Rojas gave Miami the lead in the 17th minute, Jamal Thiare quickly found the equalizer two minutes later. Atlanta then took a 2-1 lead within another two minutes after a second goal from Thiare.

Inter Miami thought they would tie the score in the 25th minute, but Diego Gómez was ruled offside. And Miami argued wildly for a penalty later in the half, arguing there was a handball in the box, but still went into halftime up 2-1.

“In the first half there is a clear, very clear penalty. … Luis (Suárez) shot hits him in the hand and the referee didn’t even check and this game is decisive for me,” said Martino, who also complained that the game was not stopped before Atlanta’s winning goal.

Miami, which scored 79 goals in 34 regular-season games, including 20 each from Messi and Suárez, would get back on level terms through Messi. But defensive weaknesses and a standout performance from 40-year-old Atlanta goaltender Brad Guzan allowed a star-studded Miami team to exit the postseason to end the 2024 season in dramatic fashion.

Atlanta will face Orlando City in the conference semifinals.

The team with the best record won the MLS Cup four times in the league’s first seven seasons. In the 22 seasons since, the top seed has only won the title four times.

The loss extended Miami’s struggles in the MLS postseason, with the team, co-owned by David Beckham, still never advancing beyond the first round.

The South Florida team made its first appearance in the MLS postseason in its inaugural season of 2020, losing 3-0 to Nashville in the play-in round. Two years later, the Herons lost 3-0 to New York City FC in the first round.

Miami missed the play-offs last season after Messi’s mid-year arrival, but expected much more this year with a full season from a team featuring not only eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi, but also his former Barcelona teammates Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. as well as a former Barcelona coach in Martino.

“If you consider where we were in November last year, there is clearly progress as far as the club is concerned, and not just the team,” Martino said. “If you think about the expectations we had for this playoff, we clearly fell short.”

Messi’s total compensation of $20,446,667 from Inter Miami this season was about $5 million more than Atlanta’s entire payroll, and Inter Miami spent a whopping $41.7 million on payroll this season.

Miami will now shift its focus to building its roster for 2025, when it will compete in the expanded 32-team Club World Cup.

Although Suárez’s contract expires at the end of this year, the forward revealed that there have been negotiations between his agent and the club to extend his time in South Florida.

Messi’s deal with Miami will see him play one more season at Chase Stadium.

“I don’t really know how limited Messi’s time is in this competition,” Martino said. “It’s a matter of time, but I wouldn’t dare say it’s that short.

“If you look at the context in which this started, it seems to me that the progress of the club is important. The comparison of the last match of last season, in October, with today’s third match in the play-offs and this bitterness that We have all had to deal with the fact that we have not made progress, it is clear that the club’s objectives have been adjusted and I think there is no reason for the club not to keep trying next year.

“What has happened this year, the bad and the good in general has been better than anything that happened last year and I would say even throughout the life of the club.”

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.