Will Lautaro Martínez be able to fire Inter Milan into the record books?

Can Lautaro Martínez help fire Inter Milan to lift a joint-high ninth Supercoppa Italiana trophy, starting against 2024/25 Coppa Italia winners Bologna on Friday?

Inter Milan have won the Supercoppa Italiana title on eight occasions, one behind all-time winners of the tournament, Juventus. If it wasn’t for Tammy Abraham’s 93rd-minute goal in last year’s final against AC Milan, the Nerazzurri would now be on an equal playing field with Juve.

Cristian Chivu’s side last won the competition in 2023 when they edged past Napoli in the final, courtesy of Martínez’s 91st-minute match-winner.

Can Lautaro Martínez fire Inter into the record books?

Historically, Martínez is the tournament’s joint top-scorer, alongside Paulo Dybala, with four goals. The leading Argentine marksman has not only led Inter to success in the Supercoppa Italiana, but also in Serie A.

He helped the Nerazzurri lift the 2023/24 Scudetto shield by winning the Golden Boot award after bagging 24 goals.

17 attacking returns (G12, A5) followed over the last 12 months, which led Inter to a second-place league finish. On the European front, Martínez scored nine goals in 14 appearances, which saw the Italians reach the final of the 2024/25 Champions League against eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

So far this season, Martínez has found the back of the net eight times across 15 matches. That has helped Inter rise back to the summit of the Serie A standings by just a single point.

Incidentally, this came after AC Milan dropped two points in their 2-2 draw with Sassuolo despite playing in front of their own supporters at the San Siro.

A 2022 World Cup winner with Argentina, Inter’s captain might not have scored within 90 minutes, but that doesn’t really affect the context of this piece.

However, he was the top scorer at the 2023/24 Copa América with five goals, just to add further credentials to his world-class ability in the final third of the field.

Martínez is the current top scorer in Serie A this season with eight goals, which is certainly proving his personal critics wrong, as Inter Milan’s title push in the 2025/26 Serie A campaign starts to get off the ground.

A familiar looking line-up for Inter Milan 

A number of players known to Inter fans graced the King Saud University Stadium in January 2024. Yann Sommer, Francesco Acerbi, Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Federico Dimarco, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Martínez, and Marcus Thuram were all in the starting line-up on that glorious evening in Riyadh.

Compare that to their XI named against Liverpool in the 2025/26 Champions League phase, where eight of those players began the game. Not to ignore Alessandro Bastoni, the Italian was on the substitutes’ bench for the Supercoppa Italiana final against Napoli, but played the whole match against Liverpool.

Admittedly, Acerbi, Çalhanoğlu, Dimarco, Mkhitaryan, and Thuram were all rested for the 2-1 win at Genoa in the Nerazzurri’s last league match ahead of the spectacle in Saudi Arabia.

However, Inter’s influential box-to-box midfielder Çalhanoğlu and commanding centre-back Acerbi will both miss Friday’s match with ongoing thigh injuries. However, Chivu will still be able to call upon the services of star striker Martínez.

Coppa Italia champions Bologna certainly aren’t pushovers

Bologna are certainly not going to be easy pickings for Inter, with the Rossoblù occupying sixth position in the Serie A standings.

This will be Bologna’s first-ever expedition into the Supercoppa Italiana tournament after lifting last season’s Coppa Italia trophy courtesy of Dan Ndoye’s 53rd-minute match-winner against AC Milan.

Bologna actually triumphed over Inter in their previous head-to-head meeting in April, with Riccardo Orsolini netting the only goal of the game in the 94th minute.

Bologna will travel to Saudi Arabia after consecutive defeats in front of their own supporters, but notably haven’t been beaten in eight away matches (W5, D3).

However, Inter are also very strong statistically, with Martínez and Co having found the back of the net on a Serie A-high 34 goals this season. Significantly, this is a double-digit figure, ahead of second-place AC Milan.

Whoever emerges victorious between Bologna and Inter will face either the defending champions AC Milan or Napoli, who play on Thursday, in four days time at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh.