April 06, (THEWILL) — A brace from Lautaro Martinez on his return from injury powered Inter Milan to a 5-2 victory over Roma at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, stretching their lead at the top of Serie A to nine points above AC Milan.
Martinez, sidelined since February, made an immediate impact on his comeback. Inside the opening minute, Marcus Thuram laid the ball into the Argentine’s path and he fired into the roof of the net past Mile Svilar. Roma pulled level in the 40th minute through Gianluca Mancini, who stole in ahead of Thuram to convert Devyne Rensch’s cross with a close-range header.
Inter recovered their advantage in first-half stoppage time. Hakan Calhanoglu was afforded time and space from 30 yards and drilled a long-range effort into the top-left corner to restore the hosts’ lead before the interval.
Seven minutes after the restart, Thuram again found Martinez, who lifted a composed shot over the advancing Svilar to complete his brace. Thuram then got on the scoresheet himself with a glancing header from Calhanoglu’s corner in the 55th minute, before Nicolo Barella bundled his way into the box and picked out the top-left corner to make it five.
Lorenzo Pellegrini pulled one back for the visitors with a low drive that beat Yann Sommer 20 minutes from time, but the outcome was never in doubt. Inter held on comfortably to strengthen their grip on the Serie A title.
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.
