Atlanta, who snuck into the wild card round on the final day of the regular season, led 2-0 at the break but two goals from their former striker Josef Martinez forced the game into the shoot-out. Atlanta keeper Brad Guzan saved Montreal's second spot kick from English midfielder Tom Pearce which proved to be the only unsuccessful kick of the shoot-out.

The clash in a 'best of three' series with Miami, starting on Friday in Florida, will pit Atlanta against Gerardo Martino, Miami's Argentine coach who guided Atlanta to their first title in 2018. The visitors grabbed the lead against the run of play when after a patient, 45-pass move, Pedro Amador crossed from the left and Brooks Lennon arrived at the back post to score with a diving header.

Lennon then had a great chance to add a second when Saba Lobzhanidze whipped in a low cross to the unmarked winger but from point blank range he put his shot over the bar. But Atlanta struck again, exposing Montreal's weakness on crosses, when Russian international Alexey Miranchuk whipped in a free-kick to the back post which was headed home by Norwegian Stian Gregersen.

Lobzhanidze could have made it 3-0 after the interval but the Georgian's shot was smothered by Montreal keeper Jonathan Sirois. Montreal got a foot back into the game thanks to an awful error from the 40-year-old former USA international keeper Guzan, who spilled a routine cross from Pearce which Martinez pounced on to fire home.

But the ex-Aston Villa keeper made some amends for that error getting down well to push away a low effort from George Campbell and a well-struck Pearce free-kick. But Montreal got a lifeline in the final minutes when Lennon brought down Kwadwo Opoku on the edge of the box and after a VAR review, the initial free-kick award was changed to a penalty.

Martinez kept his cool to drill home the spot-kick and his team-mates did the same in the shoot-out to earn themselves a clash with Miami.

October 23, 2024

S. Gregersen

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