On Saturday, Lautaro Martinez scored all four goals as Inter Milan defeated Salernitana 4-0 to maintain their position atop the Serie A standings. Their city rivals, AC Milan, won their match against Lazio to keep pace with Inter Milan.
Martinez’s fantastic performance in the second half helped Inter bounce back from their first defeat of the season midweek against Sassuolo. This helped Inter avoid their first losing streak of the season.
The Argentina striker broke the scoreless tie shortly before the hour mark by chipping a wonderful pass from Marcus Thuram over the head of the custodian for the host team, Guillermo Ochoa.
Before Martinez slammed in his second goal from a cross by Nicolo Barella, Mateusz Legowski of Salernitana had a goal disallowed because of offside. Martinez then scored his second goal.
In the 85th minute, Martinez finished off his hat trick by converting a penalty kick that was awarded after Thuram was brought down in the penalty area. Another one was added by him with a first-time finish off of a feed from Carlos Augusto.
“I’m glad that I was able to contribute to the team, since it is the only thing that matters. Martinez, who leads the Serie A scoring charts with nine goals, acknowledged the significance of the victory by stating that “it was important to win after all of the criticism aimed at us after our defeat on Wednesday.”
“I’m not concerned with winning the scoring title; all I want to do is contribute to the team’s success.”
Inter and Milan both have 18 points, and Milan had been momentarily in first place earlier in the day following their 2-0 victory against a struggling Lazio team. Inter and Milan are now tied for second place.
At the San Siro, Christian Pulisic gave Milan the lead on the hour when he banged in a bobbling ball from Rafael Leao for his third goal since joining Milan from Chelsea. The assist was made by Rafael Leao.
In the 88th minute, Milan made sure of the three points by securing a goal by Noah Okafor, which featured another contribution from Leao. The Portugal winger surged into the area and then cut the ball back for Okafor to score.
“I thought we put a lot of pressure on, it was just a matter of time, we finally opened it up, and from there it was a really strong performance,” Pulisic said in an interview with DAZN.
“Even though there are a lot of new players and I haven’t been here for very long, I feel like we’re finally starting to come together as a team.” I am having a wonderful experience being a part of the team.
Mike Maignan, the goalkeeper for France, made his comeback for Milan after missing the previous two games due to a thigh injury. Maignan suffered the injury during Milan’s goalless draw with Newcastle in the Champions League.
Lazio lost their fourth loss of the season and fell to 14th position with just seven points after playing the same number of matches as their opponents.
– Osimhen scores off the bench to give Napoli their second win in the last four days Victor Osimhen came off the bench to give Napoli a 4-0 win against Lecce, which moved the Italian champions up to third place in the standings.
Rudi Garcia’s team has regained some form as they prepare for their Champions League match against Real Madrid at home the following week. This comes after being winless in their previous three matches.
The central defender Leo Ostigard scored his first goal in the league for Napoli early on, but it wasn’t until the visitor’s substitution of Osimhen at the half that they were able to take control of the game.
The Nigerian scored on a header off a cross from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the 51st minute, and then Gianluca Gaetano and Matteo Politano scored in the last minutes to complete the rout.
Osimhen passed the responsibility of taking penalties to a teammate for the second game in a row after the club made fun of him in an internet video after he failed one of his attempts. Politano scored the next penalty kick.
This week, the player’s agent threatened to take legal action, and Napoli said that they had no intention of offending Osimhen in any way.
Napoli is still four points behind Inter and Milan in the standings.
Garcia said that “it was a well-managed match from start to finish,” adding that the team’s goal was to “hit hard and score in the first 15 minutes.”
“I’m happy for Ostigard, who is really a player who is constantly thinking about the team,” the author says. “I hope he continues to succeed.”
It’s something that really pleases me because we learned from what occurred in Genoa (a 2-2 draw on September 16),” continued Garcia. “We drew lessons from what happened there.”
“Because all of our players are working their way back up to their best level, the team is finally finding some consistency in their play.”