With Inter Miami going from a 3-0 lead to a 4-3 defeat against Orlando City in the MLS, questions rose whether this has been the worst comeback Lionel Messi has suffered in his career. Lionel Messi contributed to the scoresheet and put Inter Miami in a seemingly commanding position before Orlando City pulled off a stunning 4-3 comeback at Nu Stadium. The shocking result has raised the question of whether this is the most dramatic reversal Messi has ever experienced in his professional career.
The Herons jumped out to an early lead through Ian Fray in the fourth minute, before Messi teed up Telasco Segovia in the 25th, and then scored a stunning goal himself in the 33rd to make it 3-0. From there, the unthinkable unfolded, as Martín Ojeda completed a hat trick and Tyrese Spicer struck in stoppage time to complete an extraordinary comeback, leaving Inter Miami still searching for any semblance of consistent form.
The result also marked a historic first in Messi’s senior professional career: never before had a team he was part of surrendered a three-goal lead in the same game. In fact, throughout his career, a three-goal cushion had never even resulted in a draw for his side, yet Orlando not only leveled the score but went on to claim all three points.
On the Champions League stage, Messi did experience two seismic collapses with Barcelona. The first came in 2018 when, after a 4-1 first-leg victory over AS Roma in the quarterfinals, the Blaugrana were eliminated following a 3-0 defeat in Rome. The second and more iconic collapse came the following season when Liverpool overturned a 3-0 aggregate deficit at Anfield with a stunning 4-0 victory.
However, both of those examples unfolded across two legs. Within a single game, Wednesday night against Orlando represents the first time in Messi’s career that a three-goal lead has been squandered entirely. He has seen two-goal advantages slip away before, most memorably in the 2022 World Cup quarterfinal and final against France, but never has a team of his lost from three goals up inside 90 minutes.
The alarming result against Orlando continued to spotlight two persistent weaknesses in Inter Miami‘s 2026 campaign. The striking corps of Germán Berterame, Luis Suárez and Tadeo Allende have struggled badly for goals, while the defensive record has been equally worrying, with 13 goals conceded across the last seven matches.
Unwanted history in MLS too
Inter Miami played their first five MLS games on the road ahead of the inauguration of Miami Freedom Park, now Nu Stadium, on April 4. But with three draws and a defeat in four home games since, the Orlando collapse added yet another unwanted footnote to what has been a difficult stretch at their new ground.
Orlando’s comeback from 3-0 down to win is only the third time in MLS history that a team has overturned such a deficit to claim victory. They join the LA Galaxy, who came from 3-0 down to win 4-3 in the first-ever Los Angeles derby in 2018, and the Seattle Sounders, who completed the same feat against D.C. United in a 4-3 result in 2017.