Martinez brace drags sluggish Inter past Pisa to close gap in Serie A title race
Lautaro Martinez hauled Inter Milan back into the Serie A hunt with a sharp brace in a laboured 2-0 win at struggling Pisa, nudging Cristian Chivu’s side to within a single point of the summit. Inter was far from convincing at the Arena Garibaldi, but their captain once again delivered when it mattered, hours before Napoli’s heavyweight clash with Roma threatened to reshape the top of the table.
Martinez struck first on 69 minutes, lashing in Pio Esposito’s low cross with a thumping first-time hit that finally broke Pisa’s resistance. He then wrapped it up seven minutes from time, tapping in from a yard out after Inter finally forced the hosts into a defensive mistake. That took the Argentina forward to 10 goals in all competitions, dragging a lethargic Inter over the line on an afternoon they looked short of ideas.
Inter’s win keeps them level with Roma on 27 points, though the margin to AC Milan could stretch depending on how Roma fare later against injury-hit Napoli at the Olimpico. A victory for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side would lift them back above Milan and put Inter under even more pressure. Chivu’s men arrived here rattled after a last-gasp defeat to Atletico Madrid in Europe and a derby loss last weekend, and their nerves showed.
Pisa, deep in the bottom three with just one win from 13 league games, actually produced the better chances before Martinez intervened. The home crowd, packed into a stadium just down the road from the leaning tower, sensed an upset when Inter repeatedly gave the ball away under light pressure. Chivu cut an agitated figure on the touchline as his side struggled to string together anything coherent.
The warning signs was there early on. Inter’s passing was sloppy, their press half-hearted, and Pisa’s counters forced Yann Sommer into a pair of scruffy saves. Esposito’s delivery for the opener felt like Inter’s first moment of real quality, and Martinez did the rest with an unerring finish. Once ahead, Inter finally settled, and the second goal arrived after a messy scramble, Martinez poking home to kill the contest.
Elsewhere, Atalanta boss Raffaele Palladino prepares to face his former club Fiorentina later on Sunday, fresh from a statement win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League. But all eyes will turn to Rome, where the champions Napoli try to halt their injury-hit slide against a Roma side smelling blood at the top.
For Inter, the points will do, even if the performance won’t. They remain firmly in the title scrap, but this display suggested there’s still plenty of heavy lifting ahead.