Lautaro Martinez: ‘Inter stopped playing, Milan never gave up’ | OneFootball

Lautaro Martinez admits Inter ‘stopped playing and didn’t have the same intensity’ after taking a 2-0 lead against Milan in the Supercoppa Italiana Final, as they capitulated 3-2.

The Nerazzurri were hoping to become the first side ever to win four consecutive editions of the Supercoppa Italiana, and felt they were in a perfect position to do that after going 2-0 up.

Lautaro Martinez and Mehdi Taremi scored either side of half-time, but Rafael Leao came off the bench and inspired a total turnaround from the Rossoneri, with Theo Hernandez’s free kick, Christian Pulisic and the last-gasp Tammy Abraham tap-in.

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Lautaro Martinez frustrated by Inter collapse

epa11810265 Inter’s Lautaro Martinez (L) celebrates after scoring the 1-0 goal during the Supercoppa Italiana final match between FC Inter and AC Milan, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 06 January 2025. EPA-EFE/STRINGER

“The positive aspects are the first half, we had gone 2-0 up, but then Inter just stopped playing, didn’t have the same intensity we had until that moment and in these games you pay the price for that,” Lautaro Martinez told Sport Mediaset.

It was so nearly 3-1 for the Nerazzurri when Carlos Augusto’s header came off the upright and partly crossed the line, but Mike Maignan managed to claw it away at the last second.

“I wouldn’t say Milan were hungrier, because we had a few more scoring opportunities with Frattesi, Denzel, Mkhitaryan and more. Incidents can change the course of the game, we didn’t deal with those moments well.

“We lost the match, I don’t know if it was deserved, but Milan certainly deserve credit for the fact they never gave up.”

Remarkably, Inter have lost only three competitive matches so far this season and two of them were against Milan, also falling 2-1 in Serie A back in September.

The only side other than the Rossoneri who beat them was Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.

“It is difficult to explain what happened. The first thing I can think of is the tension, because we knew Milan’s best strength was the counter-attack and we didn’t have the right preventative marking, but also failed to take our chances to kill off the game,” concluded the captain.