Lautaro Martínez, on fire after the World Cup: brace in Inter’s triumph

Lautaro Martínez is living his best moment. The one who didn’t show up at the World Cup in Qatar, where he was champion with the national team but lost his place with Julián Álvarez, is entrusted to Inter. Since the beginning of 2023, El Toro has played seven games -in one he started as a substitute- and scored six goals. Two of them joined this Saturday in which it was the key piece for a triumph that went uphill in Serie A.

Inter, one of Italy’s best teams, paid a visit to Cremonese, who are hovering at the bottom of the table for not having won any games. In the previous one there could be no better rival to recover from the defeat against Empoli in Milan. But that wasn’t the case on the pitch.

11′ into the first half, the Cremona team surprises with a great goal from another game. Although Inter dominated, it was the locals who prevailed on the scoreboard when Nigerian David Okereke slotted the ball in for a corner to make it 1-0.

However, Simone Inzaghi’s team did not stop looking for the goal and, in the eighth corner in just 21 minutes, Edin Dzeko cleared the goal, goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi saved but rebounded and the ball was served to Lautaro for do the first.

The top scorer in Inter’s history only behind another Argentine like Mauro Icardi didn’t take long to score again. It was in the second half, when he scored the pass for Dzeko, he turned and took the shot to turn the game around and score his 11th goal this season in Serie A. Thus, he was only two behind Napoli’s Nigerian Victor Oshimen , top scorer so far.

Since his first match, on January 4 against Napoli, in which he played 26 minutes, 24 days have passed in which Lautaro demonstrated the parchments that made him start at the Scaloneta and for which he wears the captain’s ribbon of his club . .

In three days, against Atalanta for the Italian Cup, he will have the opportunity to further improve his impeccable scoring streak. Maybe that’s why Inzaghi decided to eliminate him when there were 14 minutes left before the match against Cremonese, which slightly annoyed the Bahian, who had to give way to compatriot Tucu Correa.

The result remained intact despite the local side trying to equalize in the closing minutes, but neither Cristian Buonaiuto (78) nor France’s Soualiho Meïté (80) were right against Cameroon goalkeeper André Onana.

With this victory, Inter climbs to 40 points, 10 behind Napoli, who host Roma on Sunday (5th with 37 points). Behind Milan (3rd with 38 points before hosting Sassuolo on Sunday) and Lazio (who play against Fiorentina on Sunday).

Cremonese, who have not won a single game in 20 rounds, will remain last for another week in Serie A, with safety at least 9 points. Furthermore, they are getting close to equaling the record shared by Varese (1971-1972 season) and Ancona (2003-2004) as teams with the most consecutive defeats since the beginning of the championship, with 28.