Lautaro Martinez has sung the praises of his Inter strike partner Romelu Lukaku after both scored in tonight’s win over Sassuolo.
Lukaku opened the scoring after just 10 minutes at San Siro before El Toro doubled the Nerazzurri’s lead midway through the second half.
Hamed Traore pulled one back late on for the visitors but it wasn’t enough to deny Inter a tenth straight win in Serie A, allowing them to open up an 11-point lead over AC Milan in second.
Speaking to Inter TV after the match, Lautaro said: “I’m very happy to be playing close to Romelu Lukaku and he’s happy to be playing with me.
“We’re happy, we’re working, but even Alexis Sanchez when he comes on – and during training – helps us both to improve.
“It’s a healthy competition we’ve got, I want to congratulate Sanchez who is helping myself and Lukaku raise our level every day.”
Inter were well aware of how important today’s game in hand was, presenting them with the chance to pull out a potentially decisive lead over their title rivals.
Lautaro was in no mood to play down the significance of beating Sassuolo, who impressed once again with their attractive possession game tonight.
“It was a very important game today because (by winning) we’re continuing to move upwards and increase the gap,” El Toro explained.
“We’re happy because I like always say we’re working for this, to win.
“We faced a team today who had good possession, we didn’t struggle in terms of conceding shots on goals but we’re happy to have won and picked up the three points.
“We did a good job today of withstanding their pressure and being compact in defence.
“We’re doing what we want and what the coach is asking of us.”
Inter’s next match is on Sunday at home to Cagliari and Lautaro is already looking forward to taking on the struggling Sardinians.
“Today was a tough match, but we need to recover and think about Cagliari who will be another tough team to face,” the 23-year-old concluded.
