Inter hopeful of Martinez return for Barca after edging past Verona
Lautaro Martinez faces a race against the clock for the Champions League semi-final second leg after limping off against Barcelona.
Inter are hopeful Lautaro Martinez can overcome a hamstring injury to feature in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona.
The Argentina striker limped off at half-time in a thrilling 3-3 first-leg draw last Wednesday against Barcelona.
Martinez subsequently missed Saturday's narrow 1-0 win over Hellas Verona that kept Inter three points behind Serie A leaders Napoli with three games to play.
"It is true that it’s not a lesion, so there is a little hope, but at the moment it’s more no than yes," assistant Massimiliano Farris said, covering suspended head coach Simone Inzaghi.
"He hasn’t trained, we’ll try everything of course because it is a fundamental match, but it’s more no than yes right now, unfortunately."
Kristjan Asllani's ninth-minute penalty proved the difference, with that winner marking his first Serie A goal since March 2024 against Genoa.
Indeed, no team have scored more goals by penalty than Inter (seven) in this season's competition, with Roma also scoring seven.
Inter made 10 changes to their starting line-up for the visit of Verona, their most from one match to another in all competitions since December 2015, a 3-0 Coppa Italia win against Cagliari.
Defender Yann Bisseck was the only player to keep his place, though Farris refused to label his winning side as second-choice options.
"Rather than referring to it as a secondary team, I would describe it as a group of players with limited playing time, but who are fully aware of what is expected of them," he added.
The visitors offered little threat, with forward Amin Sarr providing their only real spark with an angled strike that forced Josep Martinez into a sharp save.
Verona only accumulated 0.29 expected goals throughout a drab showing but Farris says his side expected the away team to sit back and be content to defend.
"We knew Verona would be compact, and it wasn’t easy to find gaps. Maybe in the second half, we could have been quicker in some decisions, but we didn't face many serious dangers," Farris told Sky Sport Italia.