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Simone Inzaghi said Inter still believe they can retain the Scudetto after Lautaro Martinez’s brace helped the Nerazzurri beat Cagliari and take the Serie A title race to the wire.
After watching Milan beat Atalanta 2-0 at San Siro, the Nerazzurri had to win in Sardinia to avoid ceding their domestic crown to their rivals, but Martinez followed up Matteo Darmian’s opener with a second-half double as Inter claimed a hard-fought 3-1 win to keep their hopes intact.
Inter have now won seven of their past eight league games, but must beat Sampdoria and hope Sassuolo defeat the Rossoneri on the final day to win their 20th top-flight title.
Inzaghi won one Serie A title during his playing career, scoring when Sven Goran Eriksson’s Lazio claimed a dramatic title triumph on the final day of the 1999-00 season, beating Reggina 3-0 to overturn a two-point deficit to Juventus, who lost 1-0 to Perugia.
The former striker says that success is proof that anything can happen on the final day, and praised his team for putting in a composed performance just days after beating Juventus to win the Coppa Italia.
“There is still one game missing, the team believes in it. We know that it has already happened, it has already happened to me,” Inzaghi told his post-match press conference.
“We believe in it until the end, and we will prepare it in the best possible way. Today we had a very good game two days after celebrating a trophy. In front of us we had a Cagliari team that was playing for survival and nothing was taken for granted, but I have a great team.
“I won a Scudetto against Lazio that I was two points behind [with one game left] and Juve lost to Perugia on the last day. In football you must never give up, we have always shown it.”
Inter’s win means they have taken 39 points from their 19 away games in Serie A this season, the same amount they earned when winning the title under Antonio Conte last term.
This represents the Nerazzurri’s joint-third best away return in a single Serie A season (in the era of three points for a win), after they took 49 points in 2006-07 and 43 in 2019-20.
Speaking to DAZN in the immediate aftermath of the win, Inzaghi had also heaped praise on two-goal hero Martinez after his match-winning performance.
“I think he’s got 25 goals this year. He has scored 13 goals in his last 13. The team put him in a position to score, he is a champion, he is very important for us and the team,” he said.
“He was good because even in the period in which he was unable to score, he worked hard, and now you can see the results.”
Martinez’s tally of 25 goals in all competitions this season is at least eight better than any other Nerazzurri player (Edin Dzeko is second with 17), and the Argentine has become just the sixth Inter player to hit 20 goals in a Serie A season before turning 25 years of age, after Giuseppe Meazza, Sandro Mazzola, Antonio Angelillo, Ronaldo and Mauro Icardi.
While the striker acknowledged Inter had dropped points in games they should have won this season, he too holds out hope of a dramatic final-day triumph next Sunday.
“We have lost points in matches in which we have done well, but in every competition we have played good football and done the work we wanted,” the striker told DAZN.
“The points lost are behind us, now there is one last home game with our fans, and we have to finish the championship in the best way.”
