KINGSTON – In­ter Mi­a­mi CF booked their spot in the 2025 Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup quar­ter­fi­nals af­ter a com­mand­ing 2-0 vic­to­ry over Ja­maican side Cav­a­lier FC on Thurs­day at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Ja­maica.

The win com­plet­ed a dom­i­nant 4-0 ag­gre­gate tri­umph for the MLS side, fol­low­ing their 2-0 first-leg vic­to­ry in Fort Laud­erdale, Flori­da, last week.

Luis Suárez opened the scor­ing in the 37th minute, calm­ly con­vert­ing a penal­ty kick to give In­ter Mi­a­mi a 1-0 lead on the night and ex­tend their ag­gre­gate ad­van­tage to three goals.

The Uruguayan strik­er’s clin­i­cal fin­ish set the tone for the vis­i­tors, who con­trolled much of the match de­spite an ear­ly set­back.

In­ter Mi­a­mi man­ag­er Javier Mascher­a­no was forced in­to an ear­ly sub­sti­tu­tion when David Ruiz left the field with an in­jury in the 17th minute. Ben­jamin Cre­maschi re­placed Ruiz and slot­ted seam­less­ly in­to the mid­field.

Suárez and vet­er­an mid­field­er Ser­gio Bus­quets were sub­sti­tut­ed in the 53rd minute, mak­ing way for Li­onel Mes­si and Yan­nick Bright. Mes­si, who had been rest­ed for the first leg and two re­cent league match­es, made an im­me­di­ate im­pact up­on his re­turn to the pitch.

Cav­a­lier FC, the reign­ing Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup cham­pi­ons, pushed for a goal to spark a come­back, with Kaile Au­vray com­ing close in the 74th minute. How­ev­er, In­ter Mi­a­mi goal­keep­er Ós­car Us­tari made a cru­cial save to pre­serve the clean sheet and keep the hosts at bay.

Mes­si put the fin­ish­ing touch­es on the vic­to­ry in stop­page time, scor­ing in the 90+2’ minute to seal the 2-0 win. The Ar­gen­tine mae­stro re­ceived a per­fect­ly timed through ball from San­ti­a­go Morales, who was cred­it­ed with the as­sist, be­fore slot­ting home his third goal of the cam­paign.

With the se­ries win, In­ter Mi­a­mi CF now ad­vances to face fel­low MLS side Los An­ge­les FC in a high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed all-MLS quar­ter­fi­nal clash.

CMC