Inter-Sassuolo, Lukaku: “I wanted to score like Adriano. And on Tuesday…”

Romelu Lukaku’s long run-up seems perfectly engineered to get to the decisive stages of the season in the most dazzling form possible. Seven goals and four assists in the league from the beginning of February to today – none like him and Lautaro Martinez in the period – to which Big Rom added the rigor of the controversy against Juventus in the Italian Cup and the fundamental goals scored against Porto and Benfica in the Champions League. It remains mocking that for a couple of months now his ownership has been limited to championship weekends, but even in the middle of a European derby Simone Inzaghi is enjoying the battering ram he has waited so long, perhaps too much, and which has finally landed in the Nerazzurri world to push the team beyond the limits. And it’s undoubtedly a nice way to celebrate his thirtieth birthday: two splendid goals and the undisputed man of the match title.

Test of strength

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A squad with Lukaku available is not in the least comparable to the “limited” version with two scoring points. Because if for the first half of the season Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko pulled the wheel with an exceptional goal production, the two ever-present forwards suffered a physiological and simultaneous drop in effectiveness which contributed to the late winter-early spring crisis. Big Rom failed to intervene with perfect timing, but just in lean time he signed the round of 16 against Porto and used his specialization in penalty shooting to take a run-up. But now the metamorphosis seems complete, because even against Sassuolo the Chelsea-owned centre-forward fought, he catalyzed the attention of the defenders and ruined Ruan Tressoldi’s evening, joking about the first goal before the torpedo under the cross and making it fall in a Fantozzian hour. Lukaku may not yet be in the best version of himself, but the balls lost and waste are getting smaller and smaller. Mentally, he never leaves the match: even in the panicked final minutes of Inter-Sassuolo, with Giuseppe Meazza almost ready to assist an Istanbul-style comeback, he put his qualities at the service of the team and forced the end of the match with a brace completed in the 89th minute in progression, a symptom of health. Because, after all, if he has to think of the most famous city in Turkey and his Ataturk, he prefers to do so referring to the near future and not to the past at the beginning of the millennium.

The words

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At the end of the game, the televisions could only turn to him for their first impressions and, as usual, Lukaku reiterated his continuity between his attitude on the pitch and his chest full at the microphones: “Today was important for us, a match point for the Champions League as the coach said. We must continue like this and not stop improving.” It is certainly not the time to settle for the current tally, obviously, also because there are two trophies on the horizon at Inter. In two competitions that Big Rom would like to play personally with a leading role like against Sassuolo: “I would love to play on Tuesday like everyone else, but the coach chooses for the team, I give my all for Inter. If he has need me, I’m here”. Indeed, the second goal came after he complained about a stomp midway through the second half: “I had taken a blow, but it passed. Adriano’s first goal? It’s a gesture I’ve been working on for many years, every time I received the ball I thought I’ve seen strikers of my size like Adriano and Toni score, there are many videos on YouTube: I want to improve and score goals like this.” They want all those goals: him, Inzaghi, the club and the fans. Also next Tuesday, why not…