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Series A | Udinese 2-3 Inter: Lautaro breaks the duck with a brace

Idris Bevan September 28, 2024

Series A | Udinese 2-3 Inter: Lautaro breaks the duck with a brace

Lautaro Martinez scores for Udinese-Inter EPA-EFE/Gabriele Menis

Lautaro Martinez, along with Davide Frattesi, scored his first goals of the season in the first 43 seconds to secure Inter’s valuable 3-2 away win at leaders Udinese.

The Nerazzurri were still suffering from a draw against Monza and a defeat against arch-rivals Milan in the Derby della Madonnina. Frattesi replaced the injured Nicolò Barella and also replaced Yann Bisseck and Matteo Darmian. The Friulani lost their unbeaten streak 3-0 away to Roma and eliminated Salernitana from the Coppa Italia midweek, taking them to Inter in December, but went into the game two points clear in the table. Martin Payero, Lautaro Giannetti, Hassane Kamara and former Inter star Alexis Sanchez were out of action, meaning tall defender Isaak Touré played in Serie A for the first time.

See how everything developed in the live blog.

It was a brilliant opening for Frattesi in a rare start as he ran onto Darmian’s through ball after 43 seconds and surprised a distracted Maduka Okoye with a scuffed finish into the bottom corner.

Lautaro Martinez should have broken his losing streak when he allowed a free header from Hakan Calhanoglu’s cross but somehow nodded it past the back post. Marcus Thuram battled with Christian Kabasele to keep out the shot, which was parried by Okoye, while Frattesi shot wide on target as Lautaro Martinez canceled out Federico Dimarco’s cross.

Udinese fought back when Dimarco made an extraordinary block to deny Sandi Lovric’s throw-in, but they equalized from the resulting corner when Kabasele fired a glancing header from Jordan Zemura’s cross.

Francesco Acerbi prevented Keinan Davis from making the most of an Alessandro Bastoni mistake, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan shot wide after an assist from Thuram.

With the last shot of the half and a bit of luck, Inter restored their lead as Dimarco rolled low from the left and the ball bounced into the goal from six meters out from a combination of Jaka Bijol and Lautaro Martinez. It was the Argentine’s first goal of the season.

He got another goal straight after the restart when Bijol failed to clear the ball over the top and Thuram dropped the ball to the ground for Lautaro Martinez to touch and sweep with his right foot into the near bottom corner.

Last year Capocannoniere came close to a hat-trick, but Okoye held firm and intercepted the lob, then Carlos Augusto narrowly managed to put the ball over the goal.

Just when Inter seemed comfortable, Udinese came back into the game. Lorenzo Lucca ran towards a through ball in midfield and fended off Calhanoglu, also resisting pressure from Stefan de Vrij to push forward and poke into the net.

When play was stopped, Okoye had to do everything he could to push Joaquin Correa’s deflected curler over the crossbar, while Mehdi Taremi only had the ball in the net after a foul on Toure.