Martinez fires Inter to Italian Super Cup glory
Lautaro Martinez shot Inter Milan to a third straight Italian Super Cup after netting in the final moments of Monday’s 1-0 win over furious Napoli in Riyadh. Argentina striker Martinez swept home Benjamin Pavard’s low cross in the first minute of stoppage time at Al-Awwal Park, seeing off Napoli who played the final half-hour with 10 men after Giovanni Simeone was sent off for two bookable offences.
The 26-year-old’s winner was his 21st goal in all competitions this season for Inter, who lost their Serie A lead to Juventus while in Saudi Arabia for the four-team tournament. And he whipped his shirt off in celebration after drawing level with Christian Vieri at ninth place in Inter’s all-time goalscoring charts, with 123 strikes since arriving in 2018.
“The emotion took over and I couldn’t think,” Martinez told Mediaset. “It was a unique moment, I scored my 100th goal in the Italian Cup Final and my 123rd goal in the Super Cup, allowing me to match a legend like Christian Vieri.”
This year’s edition was the first to be played in fourteam format, but failed to capture the imagination of the Saudi public. Organisers were also embarrassed by a portion of the crowd, reportedly the locals and not travelling Italians, whistling the quickly-arranged minute’s silence for deceased former Italy striker Gigi Riva before the start of the second half.
Riva, who died on Monday evening, is Italy’s top scorer with 35 goals in 42 appearances and shot Cagliari to their only league title in 1970. Martinez’s goal gave Inter coach Simone Inzaghi a record-breaking fifth Super Cup win in his career after winning it for the third successive year.
Inzaghi overtakes Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, two icons of Italian coaching, for Super Cup wins. The 47-year-old also won it twice while managing Lazio, in 2017 and 2019. His victory made Inter the second team to complete the hat-trick after local rivals AC Milan’s string of three victories between 1992 and 1994. — AFP