March 05, (THEWILL) – Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 thrashing of bottom-placed Salernitana, ending his goal drought and Inter’s four-game Serie A winless streak.
Inter have been in poor form since the turn of the year, but Martinez broke a league goal drought that dated back to December with a first-half double that brought his Serie A tally to 50 goals.
Martinez scored his second hat-trick for the Nerazzurri in the 56th minute, followed by two goals in five minutes from Edin Dzeko to complete the routing of Salernitana.
Inter dominated until the last whistle, moving a point clear of Napoli and Milan at the top of Serie A, ahead of the head-to-head between those two chasing Inter in a league contention three-horse race on Sunday.
Simone Verdi’s strike from close to the penalty spot could have given Salernitana a stunning lead in the fourth minute as both sides squared up each other in the early exchanges. They would never get a second chance to pull ahead.
After that rare moment of vulnerability for Inter, Martinez rattled the crossbar before angling a finish into the bottom-left corner after Nicolo Barella picked out his darting run. Martinez made it 2-0 five minutes before halftime when he was fed by Barella again and held off Luca Ranieri to scrape out a low shot that beat Luigi Sepe.
After the restart, Salernitana were yet unable to contain Martinez, who ran in front of Radu Dragusin to head Dzeko’s right-wing cross into the top of the goal.
Dzeko scored after thumping in a pass from Robin Gosens, who had just been on the pitch for two minutes, replacing Matteo Darmian for the defending champions of the League. For his second goal of the game, Dzeko needed to be subsequently adjudged on-side by VAR when he turned Denzel Dumfries’ pass past Sepe in the Salernitana goal.
Inter’s lead could have been extended twice by Joaquin Correa and Martinez missed a chance to score for the fourth time, but the three points were already secured with Martinez’s and Dzeko’s goals.
Inter play Liverpool next at Anfield on Tuesday, needing to overcome a two-goal deficit from the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 encounter. Next Saturday, Salernitana host Sassuolo at home in Serie A to continue their fight against relegation.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
