Lautaro Martinez: Player Rating and Performance v Shakhtar

9:48am on Tuesday 18th August 2020
By Martin Macdonald

Inter emphatically qualified for the final of the Europa League on Friday after destroying Shakhtar 5-0.

Lautaro Martinez emerged as the man of the match with a fantastic display up top, earning two goals and an assist.

What was Martinez's overall display like?

📷 Match Snapshot

To say the first half was a drab affair would be a bit of an understatement, as Inter comfortably went through the motions to grind Shakhtar down.

In a 45 minutes of little attacking quality, Martinez provided the moment of the half to make it 1-0.

⚽ ⏱️ 19' After a poor clearance from Andriy Pyatov, Nicolo Barella pounces to win possession for Inter before driving down the right wing, eventually sending a teasing cross into the centre of the box. Martinez expertly gets ahead of the defender to glance a superb downward header into the bottom left corner.

In the second half, with Shakhtar beginning to toil, the Nerazzurri turned on the style.

Before Martinez scored his second, he very nearly pulled off the goal of the game with a lovely, opportunistic lob over Pyatov. On that occasion though the goalkeeper managed to make the save.

The Romelu Lukaku-Martinez tandem worked excellently all night, and it was via a pass from the Belgian which allowed Martinez to score his second to make it 3-1.

⚽ ⏱️ 74' The 22-year-old takes a touch to set himself on the edge of the box before curling a precision, bouncing finish into the bottom right corner, with the keeper left with no chance.

A ⏱️ 74' Just four minutes later, Martinez would return the favour to set up Lukaku with a neat pass in behind the Shakhtar defence into the box, allowing the former Man Utd striker to confidently score.

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There is no doubt that Martinez was there as the finisher on the night, as he remarkably only completed eight passes during his time on the pitch.

He really didn't give the Shakhtar defence a moment's peace, however, as he could regularly be found sprinting to close down possession high up the park.

He won 9/12 duels and 3/4 aerial duels.