The Longshot: The jury is still out on Lautaro Martinez as a goal ace

READERS with fabulous memories will recall the disastrous call we made for the 2022 World Cup, suggesting a certain Lautaro Martinez would be the top scorer at the competition.

We didn’t know much about the Inter striker but some brief research, added to the fact we felt Argentina would win the competition (what a rollercoaster that proved to be) led us to tip the man with the fantastic haircut. Barring disallowed efforts, and a shootout penalty, Lautaro failed to hit the net in Qatar.

Although not a big Serie A follower, since the tournament I have seen the man play in several Champions League games, full games and highlights. Yet I have yet to see him score from open play. A penalty, yes. But other than that, zilch. I’ve actually seen him miss more sitters than is feasible. I’ve heard of hat-tricks he has scored at the weekend. I know I could just go on Youtube and find him banging in a few, but there seems to be a sort of aura around him while I’m watching, so I continue to wait to witness ‘one in the wild’.

It’s not even that he is going through a drought. In a resounding 4-0 victory over Salernitana on Sunday, one goal was scored by Lautaro. This goal marked the Argentine’s 20th in the current Serie A season. Thus, Lautaro became the first Inter player in the 21st century to score 20 or more goals in three consecutive seasons. He has 28 goal involvements in 31 appearances across all competitions this season so far.

I still think 4/1 is too short on him being first goalscorer against Atletico Madrid at the San Siro in the Champions League this evening. After reaching the final of last season’s competition before coming up short against Man City, Simone Inzaghi’s team placed second in Group D behind Real Sociedad (however they did avoid defeat in each of their six group games). There is another Simeone in the other dugout, and they returned to winning ways in on Saturday La Liga after dishing out a 5-0 pummelling when playing host to Las Palmas, however, Atletico have won just one of their last seven Champions League away games.

Tonight, Borussia Dortmund will clash with PSV Eindhoven at Philips Stadion. PSV boast an impressive plus-58 goal differential in the league, surpassing the closest competitor by 20 goals. However, this scoring dominance hasn’t translated into the Champions League.

Despite their recent win over Sevilla with three goals, PSV has managed only eight goals in six group-stage matches. This could impact their match against Dortmund, who have conceded only four goals so far in the tournament.

Tomorrow, Arsenal will face Porto, while Napoli will host Barcelona. Arsenal have been in formidable form, scoring 11 across victories against West Ham and Crystal Palace without conceding. Their prowess was evident in the Champions League group stage, where they averaged nearly three goals per game and topped the group. Additionally, Arsenal lead Porto in their all-time series, with three wins, two losses, and one draw.

Their last encounter in the 2009-10 Round of 16 resulted in a 6-2 aggregate victory for Arsenal. Porto’s Brazilian striker, Evanilson, has been in good form, scoring five in his last six games and also taking penalties and is 9/1 to score first. The ‘Maradona derby’ sees Napoli and Barca face off. These two sides have met twice before in the UEFA Champions League, during another round of 16 tie in the 2019/20 season.

The tie saw them contest a hard-fought 1-1 draw before the Catalan side flexed their muscles in the return leg and secured a 3-1 win. Xavi has already decided to leave the Camp Nou and Barca’s defensive issues have become exacerbated of late, the Catalan giants having conceded 33 goals in their last 15 matches.

Napoli’s performance in Serie A this season has been subpar by the team’s own standards. they are currently sitting in ninth place and struggling to find consistency and won just three group-stage games, losing twice to Real Madrid.

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TWO tickets for Liverpool-Luton at Anfield became available to me about a month ago, but the rearranging of the fixture to tomorrow evening (after the Reds reached the League Cup final) scuppered any chance for this Hatters fan heading to Merseyside.

Jurgen Klopp’s side recently saw a long unbeaten run come to an end, with a 3-1 defeat against title rivals Arsenal, but they bounced back to beat Burnley and Brentford with some ease.

Man City’s draw at home with Chelsea will have given a major boost to both Liverpool and Arsenal (who are away to Porto tonight in the Champions League).

Pep Guardiola’s men are now 5/6 in the league winner market, ahead of Liverpool at 15/8 and Arsenal at 4/1, in what has now become a three-horse race.

In the fight to finish in the top four, Aston Villa gained a crucial three points over Tottenham after a 2-1 victory at Fulham — while Spurs lost at home to Wolves by the same scoreline.

Villa are into 10/11 to record a top 4 finish this term, while Spurs have drifted out to 11/10.

United are 5/1 after they beat Luton Town 2-1 in Sunday’s late game.

Luton remained outside the relegation zone (depending on the Everton result last night), following defeat at home to Man United on Sunday afternoon.

Their keeper, Thomas Kaminski, ensured they stayed in that game, but they also controlled much of the game and with a better finisher up top (Elijah Adebayo, with nine in 23 games, was out) they could have had an equaliser.

Caoimhín Kelleher has spent the past few games net-minding for the Reds, and is likely to come up against fellow Corkman Chiedozie Ogbene tomorrow, with Alisson still out..

Luis Diaz will likely keep his place on the left-hand side of Liverpool’s front three, but his central partner will change.

Cody Gakpo’s impressive second-half performance should earn him a starting spot in place of Darwin Nunez, who picked up a knock at Brentford and is unlikely to be risked.

Luton are 14/1 to overcome the side on top of the table and 7/1 to get a draw.

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KYLIAN Mbappe stepped off the bench to convert a penalty as Paris St Germain won 2-0 at Nantes at the weekend. The reason the most exciting player on the planet was riding the pine pony was because he announced he would be leaving the club this summer last Friday.

Last summer PSG received a world-record ¤300m bid from Al Hilal for Mbappe and gave the player permission to talk to the Saudi club. However, Mbappe turned down the chance to even discuss a move when delegates from the club came to Paris. It looks like he will have to take a pay cut if he joins Real Madrid, an unprecedented situation for someone of his age profile and talent. He is 1/6 to join the Spaniards. It’s 4/1 he stays on a big contract with PSG. Liverpool, who certainly cannot afford him, are 16/1 and a Saudi U-turn is 18/1.

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LATE on Sunday evening, news filtered through that there was a new name to take over the reins from Stephen Kenny as the Ireland manager.

Chris Coleman is now the even-money favourite. The Welshman enjoyed huge success managing his own country, which saw them climb to their highest ever position in the World Rankings, while also making to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 (he did have Gareth Bale helping out in these endeavours).

Since then he has taken charge of Sunderland, Chinese club Hebei China Fortune, and Greek Super League team Atromitos. He was sacked from the first two, and left Atromitos earlier this season after a run of poor results. He also managed Fulham and Real Sociedad.

Coleman’s father, Paddy, was born in East Wall in Dublin.

Lee Carsley is out to 2/1.

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FOLLOWING his Bafta win to add to his Golden Globe nod, Cillian Murphy is now the hot favourite to grip the Best Actor Oscar, the first time someone from Leeside would win it of course.

The Douglas man is the 1/3 front-runner for his portrayal of A-Bomb maker Robert Oppenheimer.

Bradley Cooper has dropped out to 16/1 in the market after a poor awards run.

The new second favourite is Paul Giamatti for his role in The Holdovers at 16/1.

The Bet

THREE of our four bets came up last week and we were waiting for Bayern Munich to grab a draw against Lazio, however a poor performance and going down to 10 men scuppered our 25/1 shot. We’ll take another pop at it this midweek and go for Inter and Napoli to win, PSV and Borussia Dortmund to draw and Arsenal to win at 30/1.