Lautaro Martinez shot Inter Milan top of Serie A with the decisive goal in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Genoa which piled pressure on title rivals Napoli ahead of next weekend’s showdown in Naples.

Argentina striker Martinez’s deflected header from a corner in the 78th minute was enough for champions Inter to get past revitalised Genoa and move a point above Napoli, who are at Como in Sunday’s early kick-off.

Whatever happens lakeside the stage has been set for a huge clash as Inter and Napoli do battle for the Scudetto, with Atalanta lurking six points back in third ahead of their match at Empoli.

Martinez’s 10th league goal of the season decided a tight contest at the San Siro against Genoa, who will feel hard done by after a stubborn performance, and helped Inter bounce back from a painful defeat at rivals Juventus last weekend.

“It wasn’t a high-quality performance but we put our heart and soul into it and the important thing was that we got the three points,” said Martinez to DAZN.

“That was important after the defeat last week which hurt us, but we’re still in it, we’re still on our feet and focussed on winning every game.”

Genoa have been revitalised since Patrick Vieira took charge in November, sitting nine points above the relegation zone in 12th, and looked good for a point before Martinez’s scrappy winner.

Before then the closest Inter had come to scoring was in the 70th minute when Nicolo Barella crashed a shot from outside the area off the bar.

And moments later Inter needed reserve goalkeeper Josep Martinez, in for the injured Yann Sommer, to pull off a superb save to deny Caleb Ekuban from nodding home a shock opener from point-blank range at a corner.

https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/high-society/martinez-fires-inter-top-of-serie-a-as-milan-fall-at-torino/