Inter Milan coach is very happy with the leadership that Nerazzurri captain Lautaro Martinez has shown.
The coach praised Martinez in a press conference after yesterday’s Supercoppa Italiana win over Napoli, as reported by FCInterNews. He also reacted to Nicolo Barella’s red card.
Inter won the Supercoppa for the third season in a row.
The Nerazzurri had to overcome the likes of Lazio in the semifinal, and then Napoli in the final of the competition.
And whilst the win over Lazio was absolutely emphatic, the victory in the final was not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination.
Inter needed until the ninetieth minute. Even after Napoli had gone down to ten men, Inter struggled to break through.
However, in the end the Nerazzurri did win the match.
And it was captain Lautaro Martinez who popped up with the important goal. As he so often does.
Inzaghi Praises Lautaro Leadership, Reacts To Barella Yellow
“Lautaro has to keep going the way he is,” Martinez said.
“He’s had six excellent months,” the coach continued, of the Argentine’s first half of the season. “With the help of his teammates.”
“He’s a leader,” Inzaghi continued. “He’s a captain.”
“He has to keep going like this.”
And Inzaghi also reacted to the unnecessary yellow for Barella which will see the 26-year-old miss next weekend’s Serie A match against Fiorentina.
“As for Barella, at the end of the first half he heard the news about Riva,” Inzaghi said, referring to the fact that legendary former Cagliari and Italy striker Gigi Riva has passed away.
“Then there was a moment where he made a challenge. He got the ball, but he still should have done more not to get booked.”
“Things like that shouldn’t happen,” Inzaghi said of Barella’s needles booking.
“He’s working on it. But unfortunately on this occasion it happened.”
“We know the kind of title race this is, and what we’ve already done so far,” the Inter coach said.
“We have two great rivals, who are also going at a great pace like we are,” Inzaghi continued.
“We’ll have to play over the next six months the way that we did the first six.”
“As for the fans here in Saudi Arabia, there are so many of them, plus our fans from Milan joined us and encouraged us this evening too.”
“I think that it was beautiful how the guys, even those on the bench, went to go celebrate and Lautaro’s goal to them,” Inzaghi added.
Inzaghi also gave his thoughts on the win over Napoli.
“It was not an easy match,” the Inter coach said.
“Let’s not forget that we were facing the reigning Italian champions.”
“Congratulations to them,” the Nerazzurri coach said of Napoli’s performance. “They fought until the last minute.”
“Then they lost a final in the ninetieth minute, and there’s disappointment in that.”
“As for us, my guys always stayed in the match, focused.”
Inzaghi noted that late on, “We changed formation, but the guys did well to interpret it.”
“And in the end we scored the goal that allowed us to win the match deservedly.”
