Lautaro’s double paw is worth second place

Thanks to a brace of Lautaro Martinezwhich renders the initial lead of useless Okereke, Inter wins in a comeback at the home of a good Cremonese and immediately redeems the bitter knockout with Empoli. It ends at Zini 2-1 for Inzaghi’s boys. The Nerazzurri thus momentarily climb to second place in the standings at 40 points, while Ballardini makes up for the first knockout on the grey-red bench remaining last at altitude 8with the Grigiorossi collecting their twelfth defeat in the league and still chasing victory.

What we saw today was a Cremonese who showed she has character and courage, but who lacks the necessary quality to make good use of the opportunities she had. Something that Inter managed to do well, despite Okereke’s 0-1 draw, didn’t get upset and patiently made theirs a very important match for the Champions League standings.

Eurogoal for Okereke

The start of Simone Inzaghi’s eleven is aggressive, so much so that the Nerazzurri get six corners in the space of eight minutes, but then in the 10th minute, like a bolt from the blue, comes the advantage of Cremonese with a round shot of Okereke which slips under the intersection of the poles leaving Onana stunned. At 16′ Inter’s first response with a cross in the area on which Whitebait missing hook, Dzeko check but then kick out. The advantage of Cremonese lasts about ten minutes: in the 20th minute on the umpteenth corner, Dzeko is free to volley, Carnesecchi rejects, but Lautaro is lurking and shoots into the net. At 25′ on wrong support by Chiriches quick Nerazzurri restart with a shot of Dzeko parried.

Cremonese responds immediately with a cross from sernicola that Benassi heel deviates, but Onana instinctively saves himself. At 29 ‘Okereke escapes from midfield, on the trocar Unripe knocks him out from behind remedying only a yellow with the attacker launched towards the goal. In the 43rd minute, a cross by Benassi in area for the endorsement of Ciofani which ends high. Chills in the final part of the fraction with Inter close to the lead: on a shot by Marco’s, Carnesecchi still rejects on Lautaro whose tap in is prey to the grey-red goalkeeper.

We go to half-time with the match still open and the nerazzurri to restart they came close to scoring immediately with a cross on the near post by Dimarco which becomes a shot that Carnesecchi intercepts with difficulty. In the 8th minute on the development of a corner, a dirty shot by Vasquez which Onana saved in two stages.

In the quarter of an hour Ballardini dares something more by inserting the third striker and removing a midfielder. In the 19th minute Carnesecchi again clears Bastoni, the action continues with the ball for Lautaro who scores the brace: the kicked ball rebounds on Vasquez and knocks out the home goalkeeper.

Cremonese’s reply comes after half an hour with a cross from Dessers on which Buonaiuto deflects too weakly. But now there is no more time: Inter tries to put the match to sleep with a prolonged possession of the ball which forces the Grigiorossi to chase for long stretches and thus manages three points conquered with stubbornness.

Lautaro: “We must be ready for war”

«Three points that weigh a lot, because we come from a defeat», said the man of the match, Lautaro Martinez, at the end of the match, «We worked, we have three points at home, but from now on we must be ready to wage war ». «I hope to reach the maximum of goals to bring theInter as high as possible to make people happy. We make the race on ourselves, ten points from Napoli are a lot, but we have to be calm and think only of our own things », added the attacker. “The Derby? First we have Atalanta in the Italian Cup, they play special football and we want to play in another final,” concluded Lautaro.

Inzaghi: “Great race”

«The result does not save everything. I’m happy with the team, we had a great race. There was a Eurogoal that could have created problems, but we stayed focused and I’m happy with the character shown since we were coming off a bad defeat.” Simone Inzaghi at the end of the match.