Lukaku’s Europa League record and Barella’s eye for goal: all you need to know about last night’s win over Bayer Leverkusen
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— Aug 11th 2020DÜSSELDORF - Full speed ahead, as Inter begin their preparations for their Europa League semi-final against Basel or Shakhtar Donetsk next Monday. But before then, let’s take a minute to look back on last night’s 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen, with all of the numbers, statistics and facts from the Nerazzurri’s success.
EUROPEAN SEMI-FINALS
Inter are back in a European semi-final for the first time since the 2009/10 season, when Mourinho’s side faced up against Barcelona in the Champions League before going on to win the trophy against Bayern Munich in Madrid.
This will be the 20th European semi-final in Inter’s history, following three in the Mitropa Cup, two in the Fairs Cup, seven in the European Cup and one in the Champions League, along with six in the UEFA Cup and our upcoming semi-final on Monday, which will be our first-ever semi-final in the Europa League.
Excluding preliminary rounds, Inter have now won four consecutive games in a European competition for the first time since April 2010 (six in the Champions League).
LUKAKU’S EUROPA LEAGUE RECORD
Romelu Lukaku’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen last night marked his 31st of the season. This goal saw our Belgian become the first player in history to score in nine consecutive games in the Europa League/UEFA Cup: five for Everton in 2014/15 and four in this year’s Europa League with Inter:
Wolfsburg 0-2 Everton (one goal)
Young Boys 1-4 Everton (three goals)
Everton 3-1 Young Boys (two goals)
Everton 2-1 Dynamo Kyiv (one goal)
Dynamo Kyiv 5-2 Everton (one goal)
Ludogorets 0-2 Inter (one goal)
Inter 2-1 Ludogorets (one goal)
Inter 2-0 Getafe (one goal)
Inter 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen (one goal)
Lukaku’s current tally of 31 goals makes this the most prolific season of his career so far: the last player to score more than 30 goals in a single season for Inter was Samuel Eto’o, with 37 of his efforts hitting the back of the net in 2010/11.
Lukaku will be well aware of Ronaldo’s haul from his first season in Nerazzurri colours, with 34 goals in 1997/98 the target to beat for last summer’s signing.
106 GOALS THIS SEASON FOR INTER
Over the course of their 52 games played, Inter have scored 106 goals this season: 81 in Serie A, seven in the Coppa Italia, ten in the Champions League and eight in the Europa League. This makes it an average of 2.04 goals per game, with 51 conceded at the other end. The Nerazzurri have only bettered this tally on one occasion in their last 65 seasons: 107 goals in 2006/07. Going into last night’s game, Inter hadn’t conceded for five consecutive games in all competitions, with their last goal conceded before last night coming on 19 July against Roma in Serie A.
BARELLA’S RIGHT FOOT AND ASHLEY YOUNG’S ASSISTS
Nicolò Barella is the only midfielder in Serie A to have scored in four different competitions this season, with one goal in each of the four. Three of Nicolò’s four finishes for Inter this season have come from outside of the area.
Since the post-lockdown return of football, only Alexis Sánchez (seven) has provided more assists than Ashley Young (four) out of all of Inter’s players.