FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Inter Miami knew it would have Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba back in its lineup on Wednesday.

What wasn’t clear prior to the club’s Leagues Cup opener against Liga MX side Atlas was whether recently-acquired Argentine superstar Rodrigo De Paul would join them on the field.

He did.

Messi didn’t get the chance to set up his former teammate on the Argentine national team for a goal on Wednesday night.

But Messi did help deliver another magical ending for Inter Miami with Marcelo Weigandt the benefactor on this night.

Weigandt took a cross from Messi and scored the game-winning goal in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time to lift Inter Miami to a dramatic 2-1 victory over Atlas in each side’s Phase One match of the Leagues Cup at Chase Stadium.

Messi finished with a pair of assists, including an earlier spectacular dish to Telasco Segovia in the 58th minute, which helped Inter Miami secure three valuable points and avoid having to play a penalty kick shootout after Atlas tied the match in the 80th minute.

“It’s a competition we always do well in. I think we did a great job against a great Mexican team,” Lionel Messi said during a postgame interview with Apple TV. “The format changed this season and it’s a really important victory. For us to win today, it was huge to take advantage.”

In the new format for the 36-team Leagues Cup, each MLS team plays three Phase One matches against Liga MX teams. The top four teams by points in the 18-team MLS division advance to the quarterfinals to face the top four teams in the Liga MX division.

Weigandt and Messi’s last-second heroics produced three valuable points for Inter Miami instead of only one had it not prevailed in PKs or even two if it had. Inter Miami will next play Necaxa on Saturday at 7 at Chase Stadium followed by its third opening-round game next Wednesday at 7:30 against Pumas UNAM.

“We played a high-level opponent, which has started their league play strong,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said after the game. “They’ve played tough teams in tough situations and came away with good results. We knew they’d make it an uncomfortable match for us. For the majority of the time, we handled it, but we had to adjust after the first half. We had chances that we probably could have been better at executing.”

After a back-and-forth scoreless first half, Inter Miami found the mark in the 58th minute on a goal by Segovia, off assists from Messi and Sergio Busquets.

As Inter Miami put pressure on Atlas’ goal, Busquets threaded a ball between defenders to Messi on the left-hand side. Messi then quickly crossed it to Segovia right in front of the goal and he did not miss. Atlas goalkeeper Camilo Vargas argued for an offside call on the play to no avail.

But the lead would not last as Atlas would level the game at 1 in the 80th minute on a goal by Jose Lozano. After a flurry near the Inter Miami goal, Maxi Falcon slid and blocked a shot by Sergio Hernandez. But Lozano swooped in after Miami was unable to clear and kicked it into an empty net off the rebound.

De Paul started despite not having taken part in any collective training with his new teammates prior to Wednesday’s match, according to Mascherano, who said Tuesday he was in “great shape.”

“To see Rodrigo not just his effort, but seeing him do what he did until the final minute is what we hoped to see from a player like him,” Mascherano said. “We want him to be himself here and have that type of effort and level of play rub off on the rest of us as a team.”

De Paul played all 90-plus minutes after having not played in a match for a month.

“You do what you have to do,” De Paul said during a postgame interview with Apple TV. “The reception from all my teammates has been stupendous and I’m feeling great here. Hopefully, it’s the first of many wins with Inter Miami. I hope I can help (Messi) win a lot of titles.”

De Paul showed off his speed in the first half, but was seen a couple of times with hands on hips, perhaps trying to acclimate to the intense South Florida humidity.

“I’ve known him for so long and we’ve played so many games together,” Messi said during his postgame interview with Apple TV. “It’s hard to run a lot in these conditions, but the important thing is we competed and we picked up three important points.”

It was Luis Suarez who came the closest to finding the mark for Inter Miami in the first 45-plus minutes.

Suarez, who has not scored in Inter Miami’s past 10 matches across all competitions, hit the crossbar just before the final whistle of the first half on a great ball in from Alba. Suarez had another promising chance early in the second half, which barely missed.

Suarez has not scored for Inter Miami since its victory over Columbus on May 31, and has only five goals this season. But Mascherano said he has seen Suarez make strides in recent matches in terms of potentially ending that scoring drought.

“I think he’s had some bad luck like we saw today, but there’s a lot that Luis does for us,” Mascherano said. “... What we try to remind him is how valuable everything he brings to our team is. This is a player who has scored over 500 career goals. He brings so much knowledge to our younger players. We, as a team, see the whole body of work he brings and we value it.”

Rocco Rios Novo started once again for the injured Oscar Ustari, who sat out for the third consecutive match. Inter Miami also saw the return of Falcon to its lineup after he missed last Saturday’s game due to yellow card accumulation.

Falcon’s return and the addition of De Paul sent Benjamin Cremaschi to the bench. But Cremaschi entered the match as a substitute in the 77th minute, making him Inter Miami’s first Academy player to make 100 career appearances.

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