Lecce 0-4 Internazionale - Lautaro Martinez nets brace as Inter cruise past hosts in Serie A clash

A deliberately diminished Inter produced a rough and ready performance but delivered a flattering result over a deflated Lecce side. The 4-0 win restored the Serie A leaders’ nine-point advantage over second place Juventus.

With at least one eye on Wednesday’s game against Atalanta, Simone Inzaghi opted to rest midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu as well as defenders Benjamin Pavard and Alessandro Bastoni.

The rotation revealed frailties in the first half but Lautaro Martinez’s 15th-minute finish, which took the striker to 100 Serie A goals and 21 for the season, was enough to give the visitors the lead at the break.

A 13-minute spell during which Lecce completely switched off turned what could have been a close result into nothing short of a demolition.

Davide Frattesi stabbed home an inch-perfect Alexis Sanches pass to double Inter’s lead eight minutes into the second half, with Lautaro getting his second and Inter’s third mere moments after the restart.

Ten minutes later the match was over as any sort of contest, as Stefan De Vrij rose to steer a Federico Dimarco corner into the net with his head.

The result was Inter's 10th win in a row and the first time they've ever scored in 20 consecutive away fixtures.

Inter were not very good this evening. Simone Inzaghi would probably be the first to tell his players that made sloppy mistakes, and allowed Lecce to get behind and between their lines far too easily. They might have counted themselves fairly lucky to get away with a one-nil victory against a side that made decent chances they all but refused to finish. As it is Inzaghi’s men head home having scored four goals while conceding none. In contrast their supposed title rivals Juventus, for their part, only managed to sneak a 3-2 victory over a similar calibre side thanks to some generous time-keeping. If things keep up this way, the scudetto really will be no contest.

The phrase "scoring goals for fun" springs to mind far too easily in connection with the player who leads the Serie A goals charts. Lautaro Martinez reached a couple of milestones tonight despite a limited supply of opportunities. The Argentine was barely involved in the match apart from when he was winning it for his team. The stats tell the story better than words can: he had just 30 touches of the ball in his 65 minutes of pitch time, and only the two attempts on goal that caused the net to bulge. He's a born match winner, just waiting to be crowned a champion.

Lecce: Falcone 7, Baschirotto 6, Almqvist 7, Rafia 6, Sansone 5, Gendrey 6, Ramadani 5, Gallo 6, Blin 5, Touba 5, Piccoli 5. Subs: Oudin 5, Kaba 5, Gonzalez 6, Berisha 5, Banda 6,

Inter: Audero 6; Bisseck 6, De Vrij 7, Carlos 6, Dumfries 6, Frattesi 7, Asllani 7, Mkhitaryan 6, Dimarco 7, Alexis 7, Lautaro 9. Subs: Arnautovic 6, Klaassen 6, Buchanan 6, Barella 6, Akinsanmiro 6

15’ - GOAL! Lecce 0-1 Inter (Lautaro): Inter get the early goal, but somewhat against the run of play. Asllani spots the run of Lautaro, threaded the ball through the middle. The striker Lautaro fights off the lunging centre-halves’ tackles to poke it low past keeper Falcone.

54’ - GOAL! Lecce 0-2 Inter (Fratesi): Inter play their way through the press with Bisseck who finds Sanchez running down towards the byline. Sanchez picks out the sprinting feet of Davide Fratesi with a pinpoint pass he stabs home.

56’ - GOAL! Lecce 0-3 Inter (Lautaro): Straight from the restart, the away side retrieve the ball with Frattesi who runs the ball down the right, into the box and puts it on a plate for Lautaro. Lecce just switched off and Inter are surely now out of sight.

67’ - GOAL! Lecce 0-4 Inter (De Vrij): Dimarco's corner is met by the head of Stefan De Vrij in the middle of the box, who angles it down and to the left, for his first of the campaign.

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