Miami (USA), October 9 (EFE).- FC Montreal beat Inter Miami 3-1 this Sunday in the farewell, with tribute and applause, to Argentinian Gonzalo Higuaín, who played his last match of the regular season with Inter and who he will retire at the end of the playoffs.

One of the most emotional moments of the match came in the 57th minute when Inter Miami rested Gonzalo Higuaín and the entire DRV PNK Stadium rose to bid him farewell.

As the ‘playoffs’ begin away from home, it’s possible that this applause was the last received by his fans in the rest of the Argentine’s career.

The ‘Pipita’ also received a shirt signed by all his teammates before the match and the recognition of Jorge Más, owner of the team, to pay tribute to him during his farewell: “I remember the day I went to te picked up at the airport and saw a person of integrity who was going to change the future of our franchise.

In purely sporting terms, ‘Decision Day’ could be interpreted as the day Montreal confirms that they reach the playoffs with many guarantees, Wilfried Nancy’s men had a great game and scored during their time in Miami , adding confidence ahead of the first game they will have against Orlando City in the first round.

At the same time, doubts have been sown in a very fragile Inter Miami in defense and which faces what will be its first historic playoff match against New York FC with the question of whether or not Alejandro Pozuelo will be able to be part of the team, the de Nevilles missed the associative capacity of the Spanish midfielder a lot.

Both teams showing up at the DRV PNK stadium with their homework done, both still yearning for something more, Miami to gain home court advantage in the crossover, the Canadians to take first place which would free them up to play first round.

Neither was able to complete the regular season due to parallel wins by the Philadelphia Union and New York Red Bull.

The problems started early on for Neville, an early header from Ismael Koné departed shortly after winning his job without any opposition from the home side.

Only a minute later, CF Montreal scored the first, goalkeeper Drake Callender’s life was complicated and he gave the ball in his pressure to Koné himself, who stole the ball in the small area and put it given to Djordje Mihailovic to score at will in an empty goal. . .

We would only have to wait two more minutes to find the second goal for the Canadians, Mihailovic again the protagonist, this time as an assistant he opened the space between the Inter Miami defenders on the right side of the box and gave the pass from the death to a Lassi Lappalainen, who scored completely alone from the front of the goal, was the third goal of the season for the Finnish international.

The Inter Miami defence, to Phil Neville’s amazement, had yet another sign of passivity for the visitors’ third goal, it was the 36th minute and Kei Kamara received the ball several yards from the entrance of the surface. He decided to push forward and no one stopped him, until he came face to face with Callender and beat him with a low cross shot.

Phil Neville looked for a reaction with a double change at halftime, bringing in Ryan Sailor in place of Jamaican Damion Lowe to give the defense another air, as well as the departure of Indiana Vassilev to leave his space in the middle. of land at Bryce Duke.

Miami improved on defense but failed to compensate with an effective offense that would allow them to close the gap. It was Colombian Emerson Rodríguez’s entry that changed the face of the game a bit in favor of Inter, trying in various ways, trying to overwhelm from the left and infecting his teammates, but the Canadian defense was very strong.

Inter Miami’s goal comes too late, it’s in the 85th minute that Robert Taylor guesses Harvey Neville’s clearance with a nice pass, the Irishman’s cross in the heart of the box is pushed into his own goal by Joel Waterman.

He did not give time for more, the only positive point that Inter Miami draws from this Decision Day in MLS is the defeat of Columbus Crew which allows them to stay in sixth place and precisely avoid Montreal at crossroads. The next rival will be New York City FC at Yankee Stadium next weekend.

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– Match sheet:

1. Inter-Miami: Callender; Yedin (Neville, min. 79), Lowe (Marin, min. 46), Mabika (Gibbs, min. 69), Mcvey; Vassilev (duke, min.46), Mota, Gregore, Taylor; Higuain (Emerson, min.58) and Lassiter.

3. FC Montreal: Pantemis; Corbo, Waterman, Miller (Thorkelsson, min. 57); Lappalainen (Miljevic, min. 64), Koné, Wanyama, Piette (Choinière, min. 56), Johnston; Kamara (Toye, min. 64) and Mihailovic (Ibrahim, min. 74).

Goals: 0-1. Djordje Mihailovic (min. 5); 0-2. Lassi Lappalainen (min. 8); 0-3. Kei Kamara (min. 36); 1-3, Joel Waterman (min. 85, pp).

Referee: Joe Dickerson (USA). He showed a yellow card to Kamal Miller (min. 2), Samuel Piette (min. 25), DeAndre Yedlin (min. 38) and Damion Lowe (min. 40).

Incidents: Match corresponding to the last day of the regular league, played at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale in front of nearly 14,000 spectators.