FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates entered Wednesday’s home game against CF Montreal under intense pressure to live up to lofty expectations and get out of an eight-game funk during which they won just one game and slipped to seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Argentine icon and his former FC Barcelona teammates stepped up big time, as did goalkeeper Oscar Ustari, and Miami came away with a much-needed 4-2 victory.

Messi delighted the home crowd at Chase Stadium with a pair of golazos, one in each half. His friend and former Barca teammate Luis Suarez, who had been mired in a scoring slump and facing harsh criticism from fans and media, scored a pair of goals in a four-minute span in the second half to give Miami a 3-0 lead at the 71-minute mark.

Inter Miami snapped a four-game winless streak in league play and moved up to sixth place heading into Saturday’s home game against the Columbus Crew.

“The storm ended and the sun came out, which always happens in Miami,” said coach Javier Mascherano, smiling post-game for the first time in quite a while. “Normally, storms in Miami pass more quickly. This one lasted a long time.”

Messi got the scoring started with a blast at the 27-minute mark.

Sergio Busquets got the assist on Messi’s goal after fending off a defender, feeding Messi the ball outside the penalty area, and then blocking the defender, like a basketball player setting a pick, to give Messi room to work his magic. He launched the left-footed shot to the bottom left corner past Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois.

The crowd roared and after getting a hug from teammates, Messi pointed both index fingers to the sky, a tribute to his late-grandmother.

Suarez’s first goal came on an emphatic finish after finding himself unmarked at close range as Messi worked hard to control possession and loop him the ball from the right side for the assist. He scored his second goal after taking advantage of a mistake by a Montreal defender.

And then, Messi added an exclamation mark for the fourth goal in the 87th minute, putting away a perfect cross from Suarez.

“The most important takeaway is that we won, we had been in a bad stretch,” Suarez said on the field after the game. “We had to take responsibility for the bad results. We needed to correct things, win games, regain our confidence and get back to the team we were before.”

Mascherano was asked about how it felt to see Messi and Suarez linking up again and playing at a high level.

“Well, Leo is a player who has us so spoiled that it looks like all he does is easy to do, and at this stage of his career and the reality is it is not only his play but how he competes, it is contagious, and we all follow his lead,” the coach said. “As for Luis, I am very happy for him. A player who has scored so many goals over his career, I am sure it was tough and strange to go through a stretch of games without scoring. But his effort and desire were always there.”

Mascherano also spoke about the importance of the win and getting out of a negative situation.

“I had a very good feeling going into this game after how we played in the second half against Philadelphia [3-3 tie], and I told the players that,” Mascherano said. “Not only because we rallied for a result, but it was against the first-place team. I am happy with this win and that we returned to the type of play we were accustomed to.”

The victory over Montreal was marred by injuries to three Miami defenders. Jordi Alba, another of Messi’s former Barca teammates, left the game with an apparent leg injury. He was replaced by David Martinez, who played center back and Noah Allen shifted to left back. Starting center back Gonzalo Lujan also was injured early, going down in the 12th minute. He was replaced by Tomas Aviles, who limped off the field at halftime after suffering an ankle injury.

Miami’s defense, which had already been spotty of late, lost three players to injury before halftime. That is bad news, as the team has a big home game Saturday against the Columbus Crew and the Club World Cup in mid-June.

Montreal got goals from Dante Sealy in the 74th minute and Victor Loturi in added time.

Mascherano stuck with mostly the same lineup he used for the 3-3 tie on the road against the Philadelphia Union last weekend. In that game, Miami rallied from a 3-1 second-half deficit to salvage a point. It was the third time in a month Inter Miami scored three goals and did not win the match.

The only changes in the lineup were midfielder Fede Redondo replaced injured Yannick Bright and Telasco Segovia, who scored the equalizer in extra time against the Union, replaced Aviles, as Mascherano went with a more attack-minded lineup against Montreal.

The rest of the Miami Starting XI were: goalkeeper Ustari, right back Ian Fray, Lujan, Allen, Alba, Busquets, winger Tadeo Allende, Messi, and Suarez at center forward.

Suarez, the 38-year-old Uruguayan, has been in a scoring slump this season with just two goals in 11 MLS games after being a Golden Boot finalist last season with 20 goals. Mascherano has been asked in recent weeks about Suarez’s poor run of form, but the coach decided to keep him in the starting lineup. Mascherano has said on numerous occasions that even when Suarez doesn’t score, he helps the team by organizing attackers and defending.

Asked about Suarez’s slump in the leadup to the game, Mascherano said: “I’m not here to single anyone out. You can do whatever analysis you want, you have that right, that is your job. We try to analyze different situations. We know how important Luis is for the club, in general. The club a year and a half ago decided to go with this project and we have to adapt to that.”

On the bench for Miami Wednesday were: Rocco Rios Novo, Marcelo Weigandt, Aviles, Maxi Falcon, Martinez, Benja Cremaschi, Fafa Picault, Leo Afonso and Allen Obando.

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