Messi, Miami crash out of MLS playoffs as Atlanta pulls off huge upset

Just like that, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are done in the MLS playoffs.

Atlanta United stunned the Supporters' Shield winners Saturday, going on the road and winning a do-or-die Game 3 in the opening round of the postseason.

Bartosz Slisz scored a towering header in the 76th minute, giving Atlanta a thrilling 3-2 upset victory over a Miami team that was widely expected to reach the MLS Cup final following a record-breaking regular season.

Miami was incensed with the officiating on Slisz's winning goal, asking referee Lukasz Szpala to stop the play because defender Tomas Aviles was down inside the penalty area. Atlanta's attack was allowed to continue - the referee is only obliged to halt play for a head injury - and Pedro Amador took advantage of the distracted Miami defense with a perfect ball for Slisz.

Atlanta, which needed a minor miracle on Decision Day simply to reach the playoffs as the No. 9 seed, had to navigate a wild-card game against Montreal just to set up the first-round meeting with Messi, Luis Suarez, and the rest of Inter Miami's star-studded squad.

After losing the opening match of the three-game series, Atlanta roared back to claim the last two and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where Orlando City awaits.

"Grinding. Believing. Resilience," Atlanta captain Brad Guzan, who made seven saves in the winner-take-all match, said afterwards when asked about his team's formula for unexpected success. "There's some fairy dust in our locker room. I couldn't be more proud of our guys."

Saturday's contest looked early like it would be a procession for Miami when Matias Rojas opened the scoring at Chase Stadium in the 17th minute. But striker Jamal Thiare silenced the home crowd with two goals in quick succession minutes later.

Messi, who could yet come away with this season's MVP award, scored a rare header to level proceedings in the 65th minute. Momentum was with Miami.

But the Five Stripes, as they've done continually down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs, stayed poised, weathered the storm with some excellent saves Guzan, and then struck in dramatic fashion to keep their improbable run alive.

Miami, meanwhile, will be forced to conduct a post-season debrief far earlier than anyone envisioned after Messi and Co. romped to a single-season MLS points record.

"This season has had good and bad things. If you think about where we were in November last year, there has obviously been progress in terms of the club, not just the team. If you think about the expectations we had for this playoffs, obviously we came up a little short," Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino, who led Atlanta to playoff glory in 2018, said.

"The players are sad, as they should be when there are so many expectations and the team can't fulfil them. In this final part of the year we got used to achieving the objectives but we couldn't achieve the most important one."