Alexey Miranchuk tied the game with a spectacular shot from outside the penalty area in the 84th minute. Atlanta United came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Lionel Messi and visiting Inter Miami on Wednesday night.
Miranchuk scored his first MLS goal after moving from the similarly named Italian team Atalanta in the summer. The goal helped Atlanta (8-13-8, 32 points) end Miami’s five-game winning streak. The hosts were still 11th in the East at the end of the night, though a win would have put them above the playoff line and into ninth place.
Also, Saba Lobjanidze scored his team-high seventh goal of the season, ending a run of four games in which none of his team’s top three scorers scored.
Leonardo Campana scored Miami’s sixth goal of the season, and David Ruiz scored their first. Miami (19-4-6, 63 points) started the game without Messi and Luis Suarez, who scored the team’s most goals. It was the first of two away games in 72 hours.
Both men came in after halftime, but they weren’t able to win the game for the Herons. The Herons still have a huge lead in the Supporters’ Shield and conference standings.
Drake Callender made three stops, all in the second half, to help the Herons keep the tie.
Soon after coming into the game, Suarez almost scored an insurance goal when his rebound try in the 83rd minute after Brad Guzan’s save was somehow blocked off the line.
A few minutes later, Miranchuk had his first big moment in an Atlanta Hawks shirt.
Brooks Lennon was found by his partner who returned the pass in the area past the right corner of the penalty area after taking the throw-in. After being touched, Miranchuk hit the ball with his left foot in a way that went around Callender’s dive and into the top left corner to tie the game at 2-2.
Lobjanidze tied the game at 1-1 in the 56th minute on Atlanta’s first attack of the second half. He got up to meet Pedro Amador’s early cross from the left and headed it low between Callender’s legs.
The lead only lasted three minutes before Campana tied the game with a free kick that hit Atlanta’s Dax McCarty and went over the custodian without him seeing it.