Inter Erase a 0-2 Deficit to Beat Napoli 3-2 as Lautaro Martinez Strikes in the 90th Minute

Inter were down 0-2 with Napoli in control of the match just moments into the second half. They ended up winning 3-2 with a goal in the 90th minute. That's how wild things got at the Giuseppe Meazza, where the Milan side completed a comeback that looked impossible the moment Rasmus Hojlund made it 2-0 for the Neapolitans just three minutes after the opener.

Napoli came out of the break with the score still 0-0 and needed just four minutes to flip the script. In the 49th minute, Matteo Politano finished with his right foot from the center of the box to make it 0-1. Inter hadn't even recovered from that blow when, in the 52nd minute, Hojlund fired a left footed strike from outside the area, assisted by Giovanni Di Lorenzo, to make it 0-2. It felt like Napoli were about to walk out of Milan with all three points.

But Inter answered almost immediately. In the 55th minute, Lautaro Martinez tapped in a Federico Dimarco cross from close range to pull one back. The hosts, who had dominated possession throughout the first half without being able to find the net (including a Dimarco shot that clipped the crossbar before the break), kept pushing. The equalizer came in the 81st minute, when Marcus Thuram headed home a Carlos Augusto cross to make it 2-2. Then, deep into stoppage time, in the 90th minute, Lautaro Martinez scored his second goal of the night, this time from close range with his left foot, off a Manuel Akanji cross from a corner kick, to seal the final 3-2.

A Dominant Performance That Took Time to Show on the Scoreboard

The numbers tell a clear story: Inter were far superior in terms of overall play. They controlled 62.7% of possession, fired off 29 shots to Napoli's 16, and created five big chances compared to just one for the visitors. Our expected goals estimate based on the match's shots gives Inter 4.319 xG against Napoli's 2.305, a gap that confirms the Milan side deserved far more than what the scoreboard showed at the midpoint of the second half.

Before kickoff, our projection gave Inter a 54% chance of winning, against 19% for Napoli and 27% for a draw, with total expected goals of 2.67. The final result, a 3-2 with five goals combined, ended up topping that figure, though the path to get there, falling two goals behind in Serie A, was nowhere close to the expected script.

What the Result Means in the Standings

In the Serie A table, Inter now sit on 9 points from 3 matches played, with a perfect record of wins, putting them in first place. Napoli, meanwhile, remain on 3 points after the same number of matches, with just one win and two losses, sitting in 13th place. The gap between the two sides in the standings is 6 points, a reflection of two very different starts to the season despite how close tonight's result turned out to be.

For Napoli, it's a double blow: they controlled a stretch of the match with two goals in four minutes and still walked out of the Meazza empty handed. For Inter, the comeback has a name attached to it: Lautaro Martinez with two goals and Thuram with the equalizer, in a second half where the team never stopped creating danger despite trailing on the scoreboard.