Inter Milan defeated Cremonese 2-1 on Saturday, and Lautaro Martinez scored both goals to propel Inter Milan into second place in the Serie A standings. Cremonese has yet to win a league match this year.
Martinez of Argentina ensured that Inter recovered from its defeat to Empoli last Sunday and David Okereke’s miraculous goal in the eleventh minute at the Stadio Giovanni Zini in Cremona by scoring in both half.
The 25-year-old increased his season total for league goals to 11 and lifted Inter two points ahead of the defending champions AC Milan, who will face Sassuolo in their first game on Sunday before the Milan derby the following weekend.
Prior to Sunday night’s matchup with bitter rivals Roma in Naples, Simone Inzaghi’s team, which was without banned stars Milan Skriniar and Nicolo Barella and injured Marcelo Brozovic, is still 10 points behind the league’s clear leaders Napoli.
“Today we needed to take three points back to Milan and we did that,” Martinez told DAZN.
“I want as many as I can get, and if I do that it means I’m helping the team.
“We can only look at what we need to do because we’ve lost a lot of points and we need to claw some back, not look above us because 13 points was a big gap.”
Both of Martinez’s goals came after excellent work from Edin Dzeko. Inter tied the game in the 21st minute when Martinez scored after the Bosnian forward’s beautiful first-time shot was blocked by Marco Carnesecchi.
And in the 65th minute, it was Dzeko’s deft ball to Martinez that enabled his striking partner to close the gap on league leader Victor Osimhen to just two goals and earn a well-earned three points.
After losing all 20 of their games in their first campaign back in Serie A since 1996, Cremonese are still at the bottom of the standings.
Varese in 1971–72 and Ancona in 2003–04 both set the record for the most games without a victory from the start of a season, which stands at 28, in history.
Davide Ballardini assumed leadership earlier this month in an effort to keep the squad from being dropped back to Serie B, but the veteran manager still faces a challenging task.
With three of the four teams in the closest reach still to play this weekend, Cremonese is nine points from safety despite having lost 12 times this season.
“We’re a competitive team,” insisted Ballardini.
“When we manage to obtain results that match our performances we’ll be happy.”
In the late game on Saturday, Sampdoria, who are one point ahead of Cremonese and against Atalanta, who are Inter’s Italian Cup opponents, would climb into the top four with a victory and tie Milan on points.
Earlier, late goals from Samuele Ricci and Antonio Sanabria helped Torino come from two goals behind to draw 2-2 at Empoli.
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