Coach Javier criticizes the referee after Messi's team lost 1-2

Coach Javier Mascherano was unhappy with the referee's call to give Nashville a penalty during the first half of the game.

Inter Miami suffered a 1-2 defeat against Nashville SC in the MLS playoff second leg. Despite Lionel Messi shining with a late goal, Coach Javier Mascherano's team could not avoid losing, forcing a decisive final match.

In the first half, Nashville was awarded a controversial penalty, which led to Coach Mascherano’s displeasure with the referee's management. After the match, he openly stated:

“I don't want to talk much about the referee... But I am truly surprised that they didn’t use VAR. The technology is available, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t applied.”

According to Mascherano, the incident leading to Nashville’s penalty should have been reviewed with VAR. He believes this decision significantly affected the course of the match.

Nevertheless, the Argentine coach admitted that his team did not perform well for most of the game: “We couldn’t find Leo in a favorable position during the first half — we played inaccurately in the opponent’s half, allowing them to score. In the second half, although they played deeper, we still created a few more chances.”

Inter Miami only truly pushed forward in the final minutes when Messi scored a goal to reduce the deficit at the 90th minute, but it was not enough to prevent defeat.

Mascherano added that the team needs to quickly regain their spirit to prepare for the upcoming decisive match: “We have to swallow this anger and bring it into the next game.”

As a result, the playoff series between Inter Miami and Nashville will extend to a third match on November 8th to determine which team advances.

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