Inter Miami’s road to repeating as Leagues Cup champions is anything but easy, especially without their captain, Lionel Messi.

Inter Miami won their first ever trophy when they defeated Nashville SC to win the inaugural Leagues Cup. The competition features every MLS and Liga MX side in a World-Cup style tournament to crown the best team in North America. No one could stop Tata Martino’s side in 2023, and the Herons are hoping to go back-to-back this summer.

Winning Leagues Cup 2024 has new challenges for the reigning champions, though, that make their road to the final more difficult than ever before. Inter Miami will be without Lionel Messi after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner suffered an ankle injury in the Copa America 2024 final.

Inter Miami still have what it takes to win the competition, but they must survive a knockout stage full of tough opponents, including the reigning MLS champions, that are aiming to end the Herons’ Leagues Cup 2024 campaign.

Group stage recap

Inter Miami might have won Leagues Cup 2023, but they still needed to compete in the competition’s group stage, unlike Columbus Crew and Club America, who were both given a bye to the Round of 32 as the reigning MLS and Liga MX champions. The Herons were placed in East Group 3 along with Puebla and Tigres UANL.

Puebla 0-2 Inter Miami – July 27, 2024

It is no secret that Puebla are one of the weaker teams in the competition, and Inter Miami had no issue securing three points over the Liga MX side in their first match of the tournament on July 27. Matias Rojas opened the scoring just nine minutes into the game with a powerful left-footed strike, and Luis Suarez doubled the Herons lead in the second half to give his side a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Tigres UANL 2-1 Inter Miami – Aug. 3, 2024

Inter Miami’s second and final group stage match presented a much bigger challenge for the reigning champions. Tigres UANL are one of the favorites to win the entire tournament, and showed why on Aug. 3 at NRG Stadium.

Juan Brunetta finished a spectacular volley into the top corner to give Tigres the early lead, but Leonardo Campana equalized from the spot in the second half. The Herons looked content to leave Houston with at least a point, especially without Messi and Suarez, but Juan Pablo Vigon found the winner for his side in the 84th minute thanks to a poor clearance from Serhiy Kryvtsov.

Tigres’ victory secured their finish atop East Group 3 with all six points. Despite the 2-1 loss, Inter Miami still finished in second place and advanced to the knockout rounds.

Knockout stage preview

Inter Miami will face Toronto FC, the winners of East Group 6, in the Round of 32 on Aug. 8. The two sides just played one another less than three weeks ago in the MLS, and the Herons walked away with a dominant 3-1 victory. The Eastern Conference leaders should move past the Reds without many issues.

Moving forward, the Herons will have to face much harder competition if they want to make it to the Leagues Cup 2024 final. In fact, they will likely meet the reigning MLS champions, Columbus Crew, in the Round of 16, as long as the Crew defeat Sporting Kansas City.

Tata Martino’s side could face a potential rematch with Tigres in the quarter-finals as long as both teams make it that far. The Liga MX side will have an easier road; they would only have to beat CF Pachuca and the winner of NYCFC and New England Revolution.

Inter Miami’s opponents in the semi-finals are a bit harder to predict, but the most likely scenarios lead to the reigning Leagues Cup champions facing off against Cincinnati or Cruz Azul. The Orange and Blue just throttled the Herons 6-1 in the MLS on July 6, and would aim for a similar result to send the Herons home.

If Inter Miami can once again go on a run at Leagues Cup and secure their spot in the final, they could meet either LAFC or Club America, two of the most dangerous teams in the entire competition.

The road to repeating as champions starts on Aug. 8, when Inter Miami take on Toronto FC.