Alexey Miranchuk leveled the match with an exceptional 84th-minute strike from beyond the penalty area and Atlanta United twice fought from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against Lionel Messi and visiting Inter Miami on Wednesday night.
The first MLS goal for Miranchuk, who completed a summer move from similarly named Italian side Atalanta, helped Atlanta (8-13-8, 32 points) snap Miami’s five-match winning streak. However, the hosts remained 11th in the East as the night concluded, when a victory could have lifted them above the playoff line into ninth.
Saba Lobjanidze also scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season to snap a stretch of four matches in which none of his side’s top three scoring attackers found the net.
Leonardo Campana scored his sixth goal of the season and David Ruiz added his first for Miami (19-4-6, 63 points), which began the match with Messi and team-leading scorer Luis Suarez on the bench in the first of two away matches in the space of 72 hours.
Both men entered after halftime but couldn’t seal the match for the Herons, who still retain a commanding lead in the Supporters’ Shield and conference standings.
Drake Callender made three stops, all in the second half, to help the Herons hold on to a share of the points.
Suarez nearly had an insurance goal shortly after entering the match, when his 83rd-minuterebound attempt after Brad Guzan’s save was somehow blocked off the line.
Only minutes later, Miranchuk provided his first big moment in an Atlanta shirt.
After taking the throw-in and finding Brooks Lennon, his teammate returned the pass in the area beyond the right corner of the penalty area. Miranchuk took a touch, then unfurled a bending, left-footed strike that curled around Callender’s dive and into the top left corner for a 2-2 tie.
Lobjanidze leveled the match 1-1 in the 56th minute on one of Atlanta’s first forays forward of the second half. He rose to meet Pedro Amador’s early cross from the left and headed it low between Callender’s legs.
That lead lasted only three minutes before Campana leveled through a free kick that took a fortunate deflection off Atlanta’s Dax McCarty to wrongfoot Guzan on its way across the line.
Ruiz opened the scoring in the 29th minute.
–Field Level Media
