Lautaro Martinez, who has been on a scoring spree, scored the solitary goal in Wednesday’s 1-0 victory against Salzburg to send Inter Milan into the round of 16.
With four minutes remained at the Stadion Salzburg, Argentina’s Martinez scored a confident penalty kick to advance to the next round of Europe’s premier club competition.
With two games remaining, Simone Inzaghi’s team, sitting second in Group D, is unstoppable as they lead Salzburg by seven points in third place.
Real Sociedad leads Inter on goal differential; the Spanish team will now compete with Inter for first place and, presumably, an easier draw in the next round.
Martinez told Amazon Prime, “I’m very happy because we have a very difficult group but we did what we needed to do and we got through to the next round.”
We still have two games left to see whether we can take first place, so there is still a long way to go.
“I’m happy with this team’s growth; we’ve evolved into a much more capable team in these kinds of games.”
Martinez, who leads Inter, is a strong contender for another long run in the Champions League after Inter lost the championship game the previous year. Martinez has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season and was crucial for Inter once again.
Martinez has assumed the role of Inter’s offensive focal point after Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku left in the summer.
With Samir Handanovic’s departure, he was named captain. In 15 appearances, he has amassed an incredible total because to a strong relationship with France attacker Marcus Thuram.
When the game seemed to be going to a boring goalless draw in the 68th minute, the 26-year-old was substituted in for Alexis Sanchez.
And with eight minutes left, he almost gave Inter the lead when Alexander Schlager wonderfully tipped his angled header onto the bar.
However, when Mads Bidstrup stopped Nicolo Barella’s attempt, Schlager was unable to save his spot kick, and Inter won a fifth consecutive match across all competitions to secure a berth in the round of 16.