Lautaro cements his place in history: "A special moment, the perfect evening"
Team
— Jan 30th 2025Overtaking Lorenzi, the captain is now the sixth highest scorer in Inter history. Joint with Mazzola on 17 goals in the Champions League/European Cup
A night for the history books. Lautaro Martinez was unstoppable: a brilliant hat-trick against Monaco on the final matchday of the League Phase of the UEFA Champions League, for a fundamental win. Inter finish the phase in fourth place and advance directly to the Round of 16. It's been years since an Inter hat-trick in the Champions League, since the 4-0 win over Werder Bremen, with three goals from Samuel Eto'o. Lautaro's goals have particular meanings to them: the Argentinian forward has scored 144 goals for Inter, becoming the sixth highest scorer in the club's history, overtaking Benito 'Veleno' Lorenzi. Furthermore, he is now on 17 goals in the Champions League, equalling Sandro Mazzola, the highest Inter goalscorer of all-time in the European Cup. In total, el Toro continues to rewrite Inter history, on a night which has ended with an MVP award, the match ball taken home and the satisfaction of leaving the field for Giacomo De Pieri, the 18 year old forward who made his Inter debut.
“Today, it was an important match for us to win, because we have a very demanding schedule. Luckily, the team had the right attitude. I am happy because we qualified in the top-eight and that was the main objective for us. I dedicate the match ball to my son and my family, who came to watch me. We sealed the win after 15 minutes and this happens when you have the right hunger, being a man up we managed to play with more serenity. I am proud to have equalled Mazzola, but the important thing is that Inter continue to win and I am happy to please the fans. We are a great side, we respect everyone and we showed our worth two years ago, last year we deserved to beat Atletico, but today we want to continue playing well. I am happy for my teammates, staff and fans. Obviously, our objective this year is to win every competition that we play in, now we have to think about an important match, in the derby against AC Milan. This is still a perfect evening, unforgettable. Reaching the round of 16 was a fixed objective that we've had since the start of the season, and we've achieved it. Skipping two matches is really important for us: we deserved this win. It's a special moment for me, I feel great, I am playing a lot of matches and responding well physically. Now, I need to recover because the derby is coming: we know what happened in Riyadh, but for us this isn't payback, all of the derbies are different and special. We will celebrate today and then think about the derby, which is hugely important for our league campaign. ”
Lautaro Martinez
Interviews
Jan 30 2025
Lautaro: «Perfect evening, we’ve achieved our goal»
TOP SCORERS IN INTER HISTORY
Updated on 10 february 2025
PLAYER | GOALS SCORED | APPEARANCES | GOALS PER GAME |
1. Giuseppe Meazza | 284 | 408 | 0.7 |
2. Alessandro Altobelli | 209 | 466 | 0.45 |
3. Roberto Boninsegna | 171 | 287 | 0.6 |
4. Sandro Mazzola | 161 | 565 | 0.28 |
5. Luigi Cevenini III | 158 | 190 | 0.83 |
6. Lautaro Martinez | 144 | 315 | 0.46 |
7. Benito Lorenzi | 143 | 314 | 0.46 |
8. Istvan Nyers | 133 | 182 | 0.73 |
9. Mauro Icardi | 124 | 219 | 0.57 |
10. Christian Vieri | 123 | 190 | 0.65 |