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| Edin Dzeko of FC Internazionale and Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale celebrates after scoring his team's fifth goal with team mates during the Serie A match between FC Internazionale and US Salernitana at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on March 4, 2022 in Milan, Italy. |
Lautaro Martinez scored a hat trick as Inter Milan ended their goal drought in spectacular style by beating Salernitana 5-0 to move to the top of Serie A.
Edin Dzeko also scored twice ensuring Inter will remain top of Serie A for 48 hours at least.
The defending champions moved a point above Napoli and AC Milan, who meet on Sunday night.
Inter had won only one of their past seven matches in all competitions since the start of February.
That run had seen the defending Serie A champions fall off top spot in the league and lose at home to Liverpool 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League tie.
They also failed to score in four straight matches and for more than 400 minutes.
Martinez hadn't scored since December 12 and the Italian Super Cup victory over Juventus, but he broke his duck in the 22nd minute when he ran onto a Nicolo Barella through ball and fired into the bottom left corner.
Martinez, who also earlier hit the crossbar, doubled his tally with a very similar goal following another pass from Barella shortly before half-time.
The Argentina forward completed his hat-trick in the 56th with a shot into the roof of the net after a Dzeko assist.
Robin Gosens came off the bench for his second Inter appearance since joining from Atalanta and within two minutes set up Inter's fourth for Dzeko, who doubled his tally five minutes later.