Inter striker Lautaro Martinez has come in for severe criticism after a disappointing performance for Argentina in their 2-1 win over Australia at the World Cup yesterday.
The 25-year-old stepped off the bench in the second half as Argentina sought to book their place in the quarter-final of the tournament, but failed to impress and was seen as the Albiceleste’s worst player, as reported in today’s newspaper edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Martinez squandered four good chances to net his first goal of the campaign, with the newspaper arguing that three of the misses were solely his fault, and gave him a 5 in their player ratings.
The former Racing Club striker was likened to Inter teammate and Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku, who has also struggled for forms after some poor misses in the World Cup, and the newspaper suggested that this was the worst version of Martinez.
With Argentina set to face the Netherlands in the quarter-final on Friday, Martinez will be hoping to feature and regain his scoring touch.