Martinez fires Inter to win at Lazio in Italian Cup warm-up

Lautaro Martinez inspired Inter Milan to a dominant 3-0 win at Lazio on Sunday, dealing the hosts a psychological blow days before the sides meet again in the Coppa Italia final.

With Inter already crowned Serie A Champions and Lazio sitting eighth and out of European contention, the match served largely as a dress rehearsal for Wednesday’s decider at the Stadio Olimpico.

Martinez, back in the starting line-up after an injury layoff, underlined his status as the league’s leading scorer by opening the scoring in the sixth minute.

Marcus Thuram flicked on a long throw and the Argentina striker volleyed past the goalkeeper for his 17th league goal of the season.

Inter doubled their advantage six minutes before halftime when Martinez combined neatly with Andy Diouf on the left before teeing up Petar Sucic, who curled a first-time effort into the top corner from the edge of the area.

Lazio’s task became harder just before the hour mark as Alessio Romagnoli was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Ange-Yoan Bonny, leaving the home side to finish the match with 10 men.

The visitors wrapped up the win in the 75th minute after a flowing move through midfield ended with Henrikh Mkhitaryan firing into the roof of the net.

Earlier, Torino scored two headers in four minutes to come from behind and beat Sassuolo 2-1 in a mid-table clash on Friday.

Sassuolo took the lead through Norwegian midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt in the 51st minute but Giovanni Simeone equalised for Torino with a header midway through the second half and then another Norwegian, Marcus Pedersen, scored against his old team to give it the lead four minutes later.

The result got Torino back to winning ways after last week’s defeat at Udinese and means that loss is the only one in its last six matches.

The win took it into 12th place, five points behind Sassuolo in 10th.

Frosinone will play next season in Serie A after it beat Mantova 5-0 to guarantee second place and automatic promotion to the top tier along with Serie B champion Venezia, which secured its place last week.

Monza, Palermo, Catanzaro, Modena, Juve Stabia, and Avellino will compete for the final promotion spot, while Reggiana, Pescara and Spezia were relegated to Serie C.

Agencies