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- Genoa 1-2 Inter: Captain Martinez stars as Chivu's side take top spot in Serie A
Genoa 1-2 Inter: Captain Martinez stars as Chivu's side take top spot in Serie A
Inter capitalised on both Napoli and AC Milan dropping points to surge to the Serie A summit on Sunday after a fine away win against Genoa.
Inter moved to the top of Serie A with a clinical 2-1 victory over Genoa at the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris on Sunday.
With rivals AC Milan and Napoli both dropping points earlier in the day, Cristian Chivu's side were presented with a huge chance to claim top spot, and they took full advantage.
The visitors took the lead after just six minutes, though it came from an unlikely source as Yann Bisseck collected Lautaro Martinez's pass on the right edge of the box before cutting past Mikael Ellertsson and lasering in a brilliant left-footed strike at the near post.
Inter continued to press and went close soon after, as Pio Esposito cleverly dummied Petar Sucic's pass into Martinez's path, forcing a point-blank save from Nicola Leali.
Esposito was denied again by Leali just past the half-hour mark before Inter doubled their lead in the 38th minute as Martinez combined with Sucic in the box before rifling a powerful finish into the bottom-right corner.
The Nerazzurri took their foot off the gas briefly in the second half, opening the door for Daniele De Rossi's team to threaten a comeback through Vitinha, who collected Aaron Martin's deflected cross inside the area before calmly rounding Yann Sommer to set up a tense a finish.
Inter were made to withstand some late pressure from Genoa as Caleb Ekuban headed on target, while Marcus Thuram was denied minutes earlier at the other end by a stunning reflex save from Leali.
Data Debrief: Ever-consistent Martinez shines again
Inter have now scored in 14 of their 15 Serie A matches this season, more than any other side in the competition.
And a major driver of that attacking consistency has been Martinez. The Argentine is now one of only four players to be directly involved in 10 or more goals in each of the last seven seasons across Europe's top five leagues, along with Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Harry Kane.
The Inter captain leads Serie A with eight goals this season, while also adding three assists. Against Genoa, he took five shots in total, four of them on target, posting an individual expected goals (xG) total of 0.41.
Inter beat Genoa away in Serie A for the first time since October 2020 (2-0), ending a run of three unsuccessful away games against them, and were worthy of their win, posting an overall xG total of 1.3 from their 18 shots to Genoa's 0.9 from five attempts.












