Lautaro goal helps Inter to win over Calgiari

Lautaro Martínez showed he has fully recovered from a back problem as he set Inter Milan on the way to a 2-0 victory at Cagliari on Saturday.

The Argentine World Cup winner missed the Champions League victory over Ajax and only played 26 minutes against Sassuolo last week.

However, he returned to the starting lineup at Cagliari and headed in a cross from Alessandro Bastoni in the ninth minute.

Although Cristian Chivu's men dominated throughout, they struggled to create genuine chances and Marcus Thuram's 38th-minute drive, which flew high over Elia Caprile's crossbar, was as close as they came to adding to their tally before the break.

Hakan Çalhanoglu saw his 53rd-minute shot come back off the post after linking neatly with Thuram and Nicolò Barella, and Caprile had to make a vital save to deny Thuram after he had skipped away from Yerry Mina seconds later.

Thuram was unable to convert Federico Dimarco's first-time cross as a second goal remained elusive and with time running down, Cagliari grew in belief that they could yet salvage something from the game.

They almost did just that with 17 minutes remaining when Michael Folorunsho's header from a Sebastiano Esposito corner hit the foot of the post and was hastily cleared.

Instead it was Inter who doubled their lead nine minutes later when Pio Esposito drilled Federico Dimarco's low cross into the bottom right corner for his first ever Serie A goal.

The 20-year-old Esposito's older brother, Sebastiano, plays for Cagliari.

Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.