Former Inter striker Julio Cruz admits he would have loved the chance to play alongside Romelu Lukaku.

Lukaku, who has scored 54 goals in 77 appearances for the Nerazzurri, has formed one of Europe’s most formidable strike partnerships with Lautaro Martinez during the last 18 months.

Cruz is confident he would also have been suited to playing with the Belgian international, however.

“I would have formed a nice partnership with Lukaku for sure,” El Jardinero explained in the latest episode of Inter’s official club podcast, Kick Off.

“He is great, he is strong and we are more or less the same size.

“I played with Hernan Crespo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Inter and I did very well with both.

“I would have been curious to see what Lukaku and I could have done together.”

Cruz joined Inter from Bologna in 2003 and spent six years with the Nerazzurri before departing for Lazio, where he would play for one year before retiring.

The former Argentina international spent much of his interview reflecting on the art of taking free-kicks, recalling how fierce the competition was on set pieces during his time in Milan.

“In training we always tried free-kicks,” Cruz explained.

“I always looked at Sinisa Mihajlovic and Alvaro Recoba, who had crazy shots.

“The problem was in the game when you had to see what position you were taking the free-kick from.

“We always argued a bit to decide who would get to take it!

“The key to hitting it well is to always check the distance.

“Recoba always kicked over the wall, Mihajlovic also did this well.

“I didn’t like to take them if it was close to the box, so it was better if I had 5-10 metres more, but they were capable of scoring even with little space.

“If I had to decide who to entrust with a free-kick on which humanity depended, I would give it to Sinisa, he scored 90% of the time.”

Cruz then recalled one of the memorable free kicks that he scored which came in a Derby d’Italia match with Juventus.

“I remember that free-kick being close to the box and Buffon had a four or five-man wall which made it very difficult to get the ball over,” he remembered.

“I kicked it hard toward his post and without much of a run up, it went into the corner.

“Playing in the important matches against the likes of Juventus or AC Milan was an extra motivation and an extra stimulus for me.”

Cruz made 197 appearances in all competitions for Inter, scoring 75 goals.

He won four Serie A titles during his stint with the Nerazzurri, along with three Italian Supercups and two Coppa Italias.