The Argentine, named man of the match in the Red Bull Arena match, scored 9 of his 12 away goals in the Champions League
– MILAN
It’s a maxi-format Toro who drags Inter to the Champions League round of 16 with two rounds to spare before the end of the group. As in Salerno he starts from the bench and this time too, despite the stage being the European one, he decides the match and delivers the three points to Inzaghi. “I’m very happy – admitted the number 10 – because we ended up in a difficult group and we passed it with personality, as a great team. In these three years, in which we have always achieved access to the direct elimination phase, we have grown : it’s an important path, that of a team that is maturing a lot. We need to continue like this.”
NUMBERS
—
In this dream 2023-24, Martinez has already scored 14 goals in 15 games played, given that he added 2 in the Champions League to his 12 goals in Serie A, a competition where he has reached 12 from 2018 to today. A curiosity: of these 12 goals, 9 came away or 75%. With the Inter shirt, Toro has 116 goals and now Vieri (123) and Icardi (124), who precede him in the ranking of Nerazzurri strikers of all time, are very close. Will he overtake them before the end of 2023? Possible given that in the calendar year he has 27 goals. “Salzburg were not an easy opponent – he continued – and in fact they put us in difficulty. We were good at not becoming disunited in the first half, when they were pressing, and then we deserved the victory in the second half”. When Inzaghi fielded his striker who, with Calhanoglu replaced, kicked the penalty to make it 1-0 in a glacial manner. “After training we kick them with Calhanoglu, Barella, Dimarco and Mkhitaryan: we also need luck… Scoring goals in the Champions League is always important and I’m happy.”
MILITO AND RENEWAL
—
After the match Lautaro hugged Milito, who was on the sidelines as a pundit Prime Video and who had showered him with compliments. The two were teammates at Racing, but it was Principe, who became sporting director of the Argentine club, who favored his transfer to Inter. Who now doesn’t want to let him be taken away: the objective is to extend his contract until 2028 by increasing his current salary of 6.5 million net. The Nerazzurri managers, from Marotta to Ausilio, have already expressed their clear desire to lock him up and both the person directly involved and his agent, Camano, have given the green light. The starting point, therefore, is solid and leads towards a future together. Maybe with many more goals scored by Toro and other trophies lifted by the team.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED