Inter to be without star man for Champions League second leg against Barcelona
Barcelona have a number of injury issues to contend with for the second leg against Inter for the Champions League semi-final, but in Italy, there is an injury drama over their star forward Lautaro Martinez. The Argentina international turned early in the second half and quickly indicated that he needed to come off after after half-time.
Speaking after the game to Amazon Prime Italia (via Football Italia), Inter manager Simone Inzaghi did not sound optimistic about his chances of getting back for the second leg at the Giuseppe Meazza.
“He felt a twinge, but had been playing eight games in a row. Unfortunately, we had these little issues, as I didn’t have Thuram, Taremi was also coming off an injury and I wasn’t able to rotate. When you start eight matches in a row, there is the risk of injury, I hope it’s nothing too serious, but I do have a few doubts.”
“It will be very difficult to recover Lautaro for the return leg. People understand that we gave everything against Roma, with incidents that I don’t even want to talk about here. Tuesday we will probably play without our captain, and that is already a final for us.”
Meanwhile the reports coming out of Northern Italy have not painted a much brighter picture in the aftermath. According to Il Mattino, as quoted by Sport, Martinez has a flexor strain. He will undergo further tests to understand how serious it is, and it is not ruled out he could be back on Tuesday. He will miss their weekend clash with Hellas Verona, and if it is serious, he could be out for the rest of the season.
What alternatives do Inter have against Barcelona?
The most natural replacements up front alongside Marcus Thuram up front would be Marko Arnautovic or Mehdi Taremi, who replaced Martinez on Wednesday night at Montjuic. That would maintain Inzaghi’s 3-5-2 formation, which he is fairly married to. However in the closing stages Inter did play with Piotr Zielinski and four in midfield to halt Barcelona’s progress.
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