Lautaro Martinez Secures Inter Milan’s 1-0 Victory Over Roma, Keeping Pressure on Napoli
Lautaro Martinez guided Inter Milan to a vital 1-0 victory against AS Roma in a match that would determine the Italian champions’ proximity to Serie A leaders Napoli.
At the Stadio Olimpico, the Argentine forward scored his fourth goal of the year across all competitions, capitalizing on a mistake made by Zeki Celik in defense to seal the victory.
In Sunday’s 1-0 victory over Roma, Lautaro Martinez scored the lone goal for the Italian champions, ensuring that Inter Milan maintained their advantage over Serie A leaders Napoli. After a clumsy clearance by Zeki Celik, Argentina striker Martinez scored his fourth goal of the season in all competitions at the hour mark, giving Inter a hard-earned victory at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
The top four teams in Italy all won this past weekend, and Inter is still two points behind Napoli, who defeated Empoli 1-0. In a week, Inter will play Juventus at the San Siro in a crucial match.
Prior to that, Inter will look to build on their strong start to the Champions League campaign in Bern. Simone Inzaghi’s team will play Young Boys there, possibly without Hakan Calhanoglu and Francesco Acerbi, who were both substituted out in the first half due to injury.
Inter, nevertheless, can take heart from a strong showing in the Italian capital that had the potential to result in a larger victory because Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar did a great job of charging off his line and stopping Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries.
“The boys played well… once we broke the deadlock we had chances to score again and should have,” Inzaghi told DAZN.
“I’m very happy with what the boys showed me today.”
After suffering its second league loss of the season, Roma, a struggling capital team, is now behind in 10th place.
Roma’s die-hard supporters boycotted the game for the first fifteen minutes in an unusual display of disapproval towards the club led by American millionaire Dan Friedkin.
Fans of Roma, who last qualified for the Champions League in 2018, are still incensed at the dismissal of their hero Daniele De Rossi last month and are fed up with the team’s management.
“We created chances but didn’t take advantage of them… to give away a goal the way we did in a match like this is a real shame because the team played well,” Ivan Juric, the coach of Roma, stated.
Napoli won four straight games across all competitions thanks to a penalty kick from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who scored the game’s lone goal and his fourth of the year in the 63rd minute.
Rudi Garcia lost his position as coach after Empoli’s home and away victory over Napoli in November of last year, which concluded the team’s catastrophic league title defense with the largest club in southern Italy finishing in tenth place.
And for big stretches of the game, the home team was superior, with Kvaratskhelia’s game-winning penalty kick being Napoli’s only effort on goal in front of thousands of fervent traveling fans.
As a result of their downfall after winning their first Scudetto since 1990 and during Diego Maradona’s tenure, Napoli no longer plays in Europe.
And Napoli has swiftly reestablished itself as a title contender under Antonio Conte, who has the benefit of not having their schedule clogged by the extended Champions League.
“We’re trying to build something here, something that isn’t just a flash in the pan but lasts long-term,” Conte told DAZN.
Lecce Hit for Six
With their greatest performance since Raffaele Palladino took charge in the summer, Fiorentina thrashed 10-man Lecce 6-0 to climb up to fifth place, six points behind Napoli.
Fiorentina won resoundingly away from home thanks to braces from Danilo Cataldi and Andrea Colpani, the latter’s first goals since replacing Palladino from Monza. Goals also came from Lucas Beltran and Fabiano Parisi.
When Antonino Gallo was brutally sent off for fouling Dodo with the score at 2-0, Fiorentina benefited from the denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity even with other defenders present.
Atalanta, who are tied for sixth place with Fiorentina, defeated Venezia 2-0, mostly due to the play of their star scorer Mateo Retegui.
Attacker Retegui of Italy assisted Mario Pasalic in opening the score early on and then completed the points with a lovely chipped finish two minutes after the half.
for eight goals, Retegui leads the Serie A scoring charts. Gianluca Scamacca only signed for Atalanta after suffering a significant knee injury prior to the season.
