Inter Miami vs Montreal final score, result, highlights, analysis as Suarez, Rojas lead Herons to victory in Canada

Lionel Messi did the unexpected - he failed to score or assist on a goal. 

It didn't matter. 

Inter Miami's other stars stepped up to help lead the Herons to a 3-2 comeback victory over CF Montreal on Saturday night at Stade Saputo in Montreal, Quebec. Matias Rojas scored an incredible free-kick goal and Luis Suarez poked home a corner kick to tie the game late in the first half. 

MORE: See the full updated MLS top goal scorers list as Lionel Messi leads the Golden Boot rankings

Then, it was 19-year-old Benjamin Cremaschi, making his first start of the season, who beat the Montreal offside trap and toe-poked the ball past Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois for the game-winning goal early in the second half. 

Montreal vs. Inter Miami final score

The final result overshadows what was a tremendous first half for Montreal, including a pair of terrific counter-attack goals. But they turned off just long enough to let Miami back in the match and the big stars made Montreal pay. 

Miami defense caught out again

One of the sub-plots of this game that shouldn't be overlooked was how bad Miami's defensive recovery was. All it took was a couple of passes from Montreal and suddenly it was 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 on the break. Bryce Duke and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint both scored brilliant goals, but it was clear that Miami's reliance on aging stars means that they're carrying too many players who can't get back to help defensively. 

It will likely be this way most of the year, especially if Miami plays with Messi, Suarez, and Busquets together. Miami fans should get used to a high-scoring game most nights. 

Miami star power worth every penny

While the stars have their defensive deficiencies, their offensive prowess is worth every penny. Credit to Inter Miami technical director Chris Henderson's scouting network for finding out about Matias Rojas' situation in Brazil and being able to sign him on a free this far into the season. It's looking like it could be the signing of the season, as he has three goals in his last two games. His free kick golazo lifted Inter Miami and gave them the confidence they needed to make the comeback.  

Starting lineups:

CF Montreal XI (3-4-3 right to left): Sirois (GK) — Campbell, Waterman, Alvarez — Ruan, Piette, Choiniere, Lassiter — Duke, Toye, Vilsaint.

CF Montreal subs (9): Breza (GK), Corbo, Wanyama, Zouhir, Ibrahim, Iliadis, Sosa, Iankov, Biello

Inter Miami XI (4-3-3, right to left): Callender (GK) — Weigandt, Freire, Kryvtsov, Negri — Gressel, Busquets, Rojas — Messi, Suarez, Cremaschi.

Inter Miami subs (9): Dos Santos (GK), Allen, Sailor, Sunderland, Ruiz, Bright, Taylor, Afonso, Campana

Montreal vs. Inter Miami live updates, highlights, commentary

FULLTIME: Inter Miami 3-2 CF Montreal

The stars of Inter Miami, Matias Rojas and Luis Suarez, turned this game on its head, and it was the 19-year-old American-Argentinian, Benjamin Cremaschi, who ends up getting the winner. As the story of this game is written, folks may forget the outstanding first half we saw from Montreal. But with a two-goal lead, they took their foot off the gas and let Inter Miami come in, and they were professional in the second half to hold on for the road win. 

It's a fifth-consecutive win for Gerardo Martino's team and they're extending their lead at the top of the MLS Eastern Conference standings. 

90th min: Montreal is pushing for the equalizer. Corner kick taken quickly by Choiniere over to Zouhair and his cross ends up with Waterman, who's shot is deflected just wide. 

90th min: Six minutes of stoppage time. Luis Suarez is taken off for Leo Campana, but Suarez takes too long to come off so Campana is stuck on the sidelines for 90 seconds. Meanwhile, Messi drives forward on his own, he's looking for a goal, and he strikes at goal but Sirois makes the stop. Offside flag eventually goes up. 

88th min: Messi is tripped up just outside the box and it sets up another free kick for the Argentine. He goes for goal but his free kick doesn't quite dip down in time. 

On the next Miami attack, Messi finds Suarez on the left side of the box, who crosses into the middle and Sirois gets a paw on it to push it away. 

84th min: Chance for Miami! Messi is 1-on-1 with Montreal as he advances towards goal, but his outside-of-the-boot shot goes wide. Ends up that he was offside. At the other end, Montreal tries to find Iankov in the box but Callender is off his line to grab the ball first. 

81st min: Corner kick to Montreal. It's taken short and it's a designed play, Zouhir plays a cross into the back post but no one is there for Montreal. Still 3-2, to Inter Miami. 

79th min: Two more changes for Inter Miami. Bright and Saylor come on for Gressel and Negri. 

77th min: Chance for Miami! Suarez plays Taylor into space and the Finland international unleashes a curler that Sirois barely deflects wide. But the offside flag is raised on Taylor. 

74th min: In his first action on the pitch, Sosa crosses into the middle and it's cleared away by Inter Miami at the last moment. 

73rd min: A triple-change for CF Montreal. Entering is Sosa, Ibrahim, and Zouhir. Exiting is Lassiter, Alvarez, and Toye. 

72nd min: A pair of Inter Miami changes. David Ruiz and Robert Taylor enter for Matias Rojas and Benjamin Cremaschi. 

70th min: Duke picks up the ball on the edge of the box and fires on goal, but it's saved by Callender. Then, Iankov has a chance to beat his defender but his touch is too heavy. 

67th min: Suarez gets the ball in space down the right wing and crosses towards Messi making a far post run, but Campbell heads away just in time. Then, as Montreal is breaking in the other direction, Busquets pulls down Choiniere and picked up a yellow card. 

65th min: Ruan crosses into the middle looking for a teammate but Callender is off his line to collect.  

63rd min: Iankov comes in for Vilsaint for Montreal. 

59th min: GOAL INTER MIAMI! It's the youngster, Benjamin Cremaschi who breaks the offside trap and Cremaschi gets behind Lassiter. Messi finds Cremaschi in space and he toe-pokes it past Sirois for a goal. Miami has completed the comeback, it's 3-2 to the visitors. 

57th min: Messi drives Inter Miami forward, passing to Rojas and he passes left to Negri, but his cross into the box is easily cleared. The injured Jordi Alba may have done better on a play like that, but he's out for the short-term. 

52nd min: Messi aims to find Negri in space for a counter-attack but Negri was a step offside. 

50th min: Corner kick to Miami - Taken short, and deflected out again for another corner. Second corner is again played backwards and Busquets tries to find Messi and the two aren't on the same page. Out for a goalkick. Still 2-2. 

Kickoff: We're underway in the second half. 

HALFTIME: Inter Miami 2, CF Montreal 2

Montreal looked all set to go into the halftime break with the lead and plenty of momentum, while Miami looked out of answers. But then, it took a moment of absolute brilliance by Rojas and the awareness and deft touch of Suarez to bring Miami level in the blink of an eye. Fans are certainly getting their money's worth with this end-to-end matchup. We can only imagine how many goals will be scored in the second half. 

45th min: Inter Miami was dead in the water, but this is what this level of talent can do, changing the game in an instant. Meanwhile, Suarez scores his MLS-leading 11th goal of the campaign. Julian Gressel took the corner kick. 

45th min: GOAL MIAMI!! TIE GAME! And who else but Luis Suarez, getting his foot up in the air off a corner kick and the ball directs in for a goal. In just a few minutes, Inter Miami has tied this game and taken all the air out of Stade Saputo. 2-2. 

45th min: Five minutes of stoppage time announced in the first half. Messi with a terrific cross into the box but Campbell heads it out for a corner just before Suarez could get to it. What a chance. 

44th min: GOAL MIAMI! It's a GOLAZO from Matias Rojas. My word, it's perfectly curled and placed in the upper 90 from 35-yards out. Sirois had no chance and with Messi on the side of the pitch waiting to come back in, Rojas says "Let me have this one" and he completely deserved it. Huge moment for Miami and it's now 2-1, Montreal. 

Messi off the pitch for a free kick? No problem for Matias Rojas!

A stunner to pull one back for Miami in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/tqxI2gYiGu

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 12, 2024

43rd min: Messi walks off under his own power. Looks like he took a kick to the knee, which is what he was grabbing at first. We'll have to keep following this to see how he plays in the second half. 

Meanwhile, Suarez gets the ball and turns and is taken down from behind by Piette, who picks up a yellow card. 

41st min: Foul! Campbell breaks up counter-attack by smashing into Messi and the referee blows the whistle. A worrying sight, as Messi is still down after rolling around in what seems like a lot of pain. 

39th min: Chance Montreal! Duke gets the ball on the edge of the box and with enough space to take a touch and fire, but it's right at Callender, who makes an excellent save. 

37th min: Messi gets the ball on the right side of the field on a break but his cross towards Rojas is easily cut out by Sirois. Messi is having to drop back very deep just to pick up the ball. 

36th min: Mason Toye with a lung-bursting run to get onto a line-breaking chip after Miami turned it over in their attacking third, but Miami's defense looked stronger in that sequence, getting a block and clearing the danger for the moment. It's all Montreal right now though. 

32nd min: GOOOOAAAALLL MONTREAL! It's another lightning-quick attack by Montreal and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint fires a terrific shot into the far post side netting to give his hometown club a 2-0 lead. Who saw this coming?! WOW!

Perfection from @cfmontreal. 🤌

Jules-Anthony Vilsaint finishes off the move to make it 2-0! pic.twitter.com/o8OfbrqKrP

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 12, 2024

30th min: Big call! So much is happening in this game. Choiniere dribbles into the box and goes down under a challenge from Weigandt, but the referee waves it off. VAR agrees, no penalty kick. 

29th min: Chance Montreal! Huge save by Callendar as Ruan cuts a ball back and Choiniere makes the late run to fire a strike on target, and Callendar needs to palm it away. Lassiter then has a chance to shoot but it goes well over the crossbar. 

27th min: Inter Miami's first attack since the goal ends up with a surprise left-footed cross forward by Sergio Busquets up to Suarez, who chests one over to Messi and he attempts the volley spectacular and misses badly. Luckily for Messi, Suarez was ruled offside. 

26th min: Montreal stroking the ball around with a lot of confidence as Inter Miami can barely get out of their own half. A frustrated Luis Suarez throws up a paw attempting to block a chip in the air over his head - he doesn't make contact. 

22nd min: GOAL MONTREAL! Out of nowhere CF Montreal go on a fast counter-attack started by Vilsaint and he sees his teammate Bryce Duke open between the chasing Inter Miami defenders. Duke takes a touch and then slots home a goal through the legs of Callender. What a moment for Montreal! The hosts have a 1-0 lead. 

20th min: Waterman turns it over right to Suarez just outside the box. Suarez passes to Messi but Waterman makes up for his mistake with a great block. 

18th min: It's Messi to take the free kick.....and it's OVER the bar. Just didn't get the swerve right. Still, a very dangerous moment for Montreal.  

17th min: Vilsaint turns it over and Rojas gets it in to Messi and he turns towards goal, cuts past Waterman and Messi is tripped up, setting up a great free kick from 25-yards out. 

15th min: Nearly a disaster for Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender as he turns the ball over on a simple pass when playing it out from the back. Montreal doesn't get a shot off but they take their time to set up an attack and Callender is called upon to get a hand to a cross into Vilsaint's at the back post. 

13th min: Freire attempts a long chip towards Suarez up top but the Uruguayan is muscled off the ball. Inter Miami seems to be countering by playing quick long balls as soon as they receive possession. 

10th min: Free kick to Montreal right on the edge of the box. Bryce Duke takes it...and it's deflected out for a corner kick. Ensuing corner kick is recycled and Montreal crosses it into the middle and it's cleared at the last moment. 

7th min: CF Montreal are sitting in a compact defensive formation, two lines of four and they seem just fine letting Inter Miami pass it around their backline. There's very little space right now for Messi to operate. 

6th min: Ariel Lassiter and Bryce Duke, both former Inter Miami players, are starting for Montreal tonight. The player they were traded for, Kamal Miller, had to be offloaded by Montreal last offseason due to salary cap concerns. Duke went down after a hard challenge, but he seems to be okay after getting some time to get back on his feet. 

3rd min: Messi sets up a chance for Julian Gressel but it's blocked well by Waterman. 

1st min: Messi makes his first touch to big cheers. Safe to say there's a lot of Messi fans in the house tonight, as expected. 

Kickoff: We're underway from Stade Saputo in Montreal. Inter Miami kicks off first. 

10 mins to kickoff: There's still a few remaining tickets to the match on StubHub, but the cheapest ticket is now up to $191 per person. 

30 mins to kickoff: With three more goal contributions (goal scored or assist), Messi will break another MLS record, becoming the fastest player to 25 goal contributions in a single season. Carlos Vela currently holds the record, but it took him 16 games to start a season with 26 goal contributions (which is still incredibly impressive, but not as other-worldly as Messi has been). 

45 mins to kickoff: One storyline to follow for Montreal - coach Laurent Courtois is missing eight players due to injury or illness tonight, including star attackers Josef Martinez and Matias Coccaro. Mason Toye will have to be clinical with his chances if Montreal wants to keep pace with Miami tonight. 

1 hour to kickoff: Lineups are out! One surprise for Inter Miami - Benjamin Cremaschi is in for Robert Taylor. A big decision to play the youngster on the road. 

Nuestro XI de hoy 🤝 #MTLvMIA

7:30PM ET | 📺 #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV: https://t.co/jdASpc1epC pic.twitter.com/cu7ZBp02VG

— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) May 11, 2024

1:30 hours to kickoff: Messi Mania has fully taken hold of Montreal. 

Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami team has arrived by bus at Saputo Stadium for tonight’s game vs CF Montréal. It was quite a scene. #MLS pic.twitter.com/RS2aUDUldM

— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) May 11, 2024

1:45 hours to kickoff: Per Opta, Lionel Messi alone has been involved in 22 goals in eight MLS games. Only the LA Galaxy - as a whole team - has scored that many goals in the same time span. They scored 26 goals in eight games in 1998. Just goes to show how dominant Messi has been this season. 

2 hours to kickoff: As today's analyst for Apple TV Calen Carr (via Andres Agulla) points out, Lionel Messi scored against the coach of CF Montreal, Laurent Courtois, in a 5-1 win for Barcelona in 2008. Messi was just 20-years old at the time. The ball went through Courtois' legs for the goal. 

Courtois was straight up about how this went at Levante vs Messi. He is in great company, especially when confronting that unreal Barca team. Here’s a clip @aagulla_TV describes below. Excited to call CF Montreal vs Inter Miami alongside @CalWilliamsComm 7:30p et on @AppleTV https://t.co/JQhMhxVQxn pic.twitter.com/EmDCxjxs2h

— Calen Carr (@CalenCarr) May 11, 2024

How to watch Inter Miami vs. Montreal

• Date: Saturday, May 11, 2024
• Time: 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT
• TV channel: None
• Streaming: MLS Season Pass from Apple TV

Fans can watch Inter Miami vs. CF Montreal and every league match this season via MLS Season Pass from Apple TV. 

Fans can sign up for a seasonal subscription to MLS Season Pass for $69 for the remainder of the 2024 season (30% off original price of $99).

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