Inter Milan 2-0 Napoli: 5 Talking Points as Nerazzurri close in on a top-two finish

#3: Antonio Conte's Inter Milan substitutions paid off

Lautaro Martinez (left) scored for Inter Milan after coming on as a substitute.

It was always going to be a matter of time before Lautaro Martinez came on for Inter Milan in the second half to replace Alexis Sanchez. When he did so, the result was spectacular, as the Argentinian scored his 14th Serie A goal of the season to make it his best return in a single season for Inter Milan.

Martinez's goal was a thing of beauty. He took the ball in the middle of the park and glided past Demme easily before charging at the Napolo centre-halves.

With D'Ambrosio on the charge from the right flank, the Napoli defence could have been forgiven for assuming that Martinez would play the ball there. The Argentine still was a good distance away from goal, but he had other ideas.

Martinez wrapped his right foot around a powerful shot that headed for the bottom right corner of Meret's net. The Napolo goalkeeper got down pretty well, but despite getting a strong hand to the ball, could not keep it out as Inter Milan wrapped up the win with a convincing scoreline.

GOLAZO 😱😍#InterNapoli 2⃣-0⃣#FORZAINTER ⚫️🔵 pic.twitter.com/z4JvpLlMgG

— Inter (@Inter_en) July 28, 2020

With Biraghi also tiring, Conte sent out Ashley Young to shore things up, deal with the pace of Hirving Lozano and see out the game, which turned out to be an astute move from the Inter Milan tactician.

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#4: Napoli's challenge fizzled out in the second half

Lorenzo Insigne (left) missed Napoli's best chance of the game in the first half.

Despite being impressive with their passing and intensity in the final third for most of the game, Napoli couldn't create enough opportunities to trouble the Inter Milan custodian Samir Handanovic, apart from a couple of chances for Zielinski and Insigne in the first half.

As the game wore on, the visitors appeared tired as the impact of having played a game every three or four days for the last month was beginning to tell on the Napoli players.

Insigne's decision-making became clouded, Zielinski couldn't get on the ball enough and the Napoli full-backs couldn't sustain their intensity after starting off the second-half very impressively.

Gattuso tried to freshen things up by bringing on Lozano, Allan and Jose Callejon, but the moves did not work for Napoli, though, as Inter Milan brought out the experienced duo of Godin and Young to shore things up at the back and see out the game.

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#5: Inter Milan in pole position for final-day battle royale for second spot

Conte's Inter Milan go into the final day as favourites to finish second in the 2019-20 Serie A season.

Inter Milan travel to Bergamo on the final day of the Serie A season this weekend, needing just a point to assure themselves of second spot.

Two late goals from Ruslan Malinovskiy and Papu Gomez gave Atalanta a late win at Parma last night, which ensured that the race for second place would go down to a direct head-to-head clash between Inter and Gian Piero Gasperini's side on the final day.

In their comeback win against Parma, Atalanta looked as tired and jaded as Inter Milan did for most part of this game, so it promises to be an intriguing clash to see who comes out as the best team behind Juventus in the 2019-20 Serie A.

Regardless of how things pan out in Bergamo, Inter Milan will look back on a season where they had the opportunity to have a lot more to play for on the final weekend than just second place as their squad had a plethora of new player acquisitions as well as a new manager in Antonio Conte.