Inter Milan captain Lautaro Martinez has earned plaudits showing killer instinct when it was needed most against Atalanta.
As L’Interista highlight, the player ratings for the Argentine across Italian media have been positive.
Yesterday’s match at the Gewiss Arena did not exactly see Martinez receive a mountain of chances to score from.
And it never looked likely to. Atalanta are one of Serie A’s toughest teams to play against, particularly at home.
Therefore, whilst it wasn’t a terrible performance from Martinez, he had to huff and puff without really having the decisive impact.
At least for the better part of the match.
But the 26-year-old has shown over the past few seasons that sometimes he only needs one chance.
And so it proved yesterday in Bergamo.
Inter Captain Lautaro Martinez Commended For Having Decisive Impact Vs Atalanta
Martinez initially thought that he’d scored the match’s opening goal with a header.
However, the offside went up. The Inter captain had gone just a bit too early, and so his goal didn’t stand.
Perhaps for some strikers this would have been a sign that it just wasn’t their night.
But Martinez didn’t wait long to respond to that minor setback.
Whilst the Argentine was not getting any tap-ins or easy chances against an aggressive La Dea backline, he wasn’t going to let that stop him.
Martinez’s curling effort from the corner of the box showed why he has already hit double digits in Serie A.
The Nerazzurri captain took an excellent touch to set himself. Then he waited until just the right moment to unleash his effort.
Martinez then placed a curling effort that had exactly the right balance of power and accuracy.
There was little hope for the Argentine’s international teammate Juan Musso to get to it.
From Martinez, it was a perfect demonstration of the kind of clinical edge that is necessary.
Even in a hugely difficult match, in which there were few chances, the Inter captain was able to settle things with a wonderful strike from the slimmest of half-chances.
