Martinez fires Inter Milan to Italian Super Cup glory

Inter Milan secured their third consecutive Italian Super Cup victory thanks to Lautaro Martinez's goal in the dying moments of their match against a disgruntled Napoli side in Riyadh on Monday.

In the closing moments of the match at Al-Awwal Park, Argentine forward Martinez scored by expertly finishing a pass from Benjamin Pavard that was delivered close to the ground. This goal sealed the victory for his team over Napoli, who had to play the last 30 minutes of the game with just 10 players because Giovanni Simeone had been given two yellow cards resulting in a red card.

Inter's 26-year-old player scored the winning goal, marking his 21st goal in all competitions this season. Inter lost their Serie A lead to Juventus while participating in a four-team tournament in Saudi Arabia.

He removed his shirt in jubilation upon tying with Christian Vieri for the ninth slot on Inter's historical list of top goal scorers. He achieved this feat by scoring 123 goals since joining the team in 2018.

Martinez stated to Mediaset that he was overwhelmed by his emotions, causing him to become unable to think.

I experienced a one-of-a-kind moment when I successfully made my 100th goal in the Italian Cup Final and my 123rd goal in the Super Cup. This incredible achievement enabled me to be at par with the great Christian Vieri.

The recent version played in Saudi Arabia was the inaugural one in a four-team layout, but it did not quite excite or interest the locals as expected.

The people in charge of the event were also ashamed because some of the audience, who were said to be from the area and not visitors from Italy, made noise by whistling during the minute of silence that was put together hastily to honor the late Italian soccer player Gigi Riva before the beginning of the second half.

On the evening of Monday, Riva sadly passed away. He held the title of Italy's highest scorer with an impressive 35 goals in just 42 games, and was responsible for leading Cagliari to their sole league championship win back in 1970.

Martinez's objective secured Inter coach Simone Inzaghi's fifth Super Cup victory, which broke the record for the most wins in his career. He accomplished this after triumphing in the competition for the third year in a row.

Inzaghi has surpassed two legendary Italian coaches, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, in terms of Super Cup victories.

Additionally, this individual achieved victory twice while being in charge of Lazio. In 2017 and 2019, they succeeded.

Inter's win meant that they became the second team in history to achieve the impressive feat of winning three times in a row, following in the footsteps of their fellow city team, AC Milan, who won three consecutive times between 1992 and 1994.

Martinez, the captain of Inter, along with the rest of his team, brought the trophy to a group of fans who had come all the way from Italy. They handed it over to the ecstatic supporters as they cheered in celebration of their win.

Although the trophy ceremony was taking place, Napoli's coach Walter Mazzarri did not participate. He was extremely angry about the decision to send off striker Simeone, who is currently filling in for Victor Osimhen while he competes for Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Gianluca Rocchi gave Simeone his marching orders in the 60th minute of the game. This was because Simeone had accidentally stepped on Francesco Acerbi's foot. Just a few moments earlier, Simeone had been given a yellow card for colliding with Hakan Calhanoglu.

Mazzarri shouted "shame, shame" at the referees and quickly left through the exit without conversing with the reporters.

Everyone can see how the referees have been performing poorly this season. Before the game, I sat with Rocchi and thought about the difficult situation he might have to handle, which would be a major source of humiliation, stated Aurelio De Laurentiis, the President of Napoli.

Simeone won't be able to play in the upcoming game against Lazio this Sunday because they are serving a suspension. Currently, the Italian champions are occupying the ninth position in Serie A.