Lautaro becomes Inter's all-time top Champions League goalscorer: "I'm proud, we always give our all"

Inter Milan

·5. März 2025

Lautaro becomes Inter's all-time top Champions League goalscorer: "I'm proud, we always give our all"

Lautaro Martinez moves fast, both on the pitch, and in Inter's history books. At "De Kuip", in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, the Nerazzurri captain scored an important goal that sealed a 2-0 win in the first of two matches against Feyenoord. In scoring, he broke a new record. His goal, away in The Netherlands, was his 18th in the competition and it meant that he overtook Mazzola as Inter's best ever goalscorer in the history of the Champions League/Champion's Cup.

It was a night of records, goals and stories at "De Kuip". Throughout the match, in which Lautaro set this new record, there was a special visitor in the stands who, just like the Inter captain, captured the hearts of Nerazzurri fans through his goals, hard work and generosity. "El Jardinero", Julio Cruz, who played in this same fixture twice before, embraced Lautaro just after he was presented the MVP award.

OneFootball Videos

LAUTARO 18 IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

History is being made, there's no doubt about it. Lautaro’s journey in the Champions League began at Camp Nou in October 2019. It was a fantastic goal in a match that Inter eventually lost, but it marked the start of the Argentinian striker’s journey with Inter in Europe’s elite competition. This journey has continued until the match with Monaco, and, on the way, there has just been one other match where he's scored more than once in a single 90 minutes: against Slavia in Prague in 2019. Lautaro has certainly bagged some big goals: he's scored twice away to Barcelona, once away to Real Madrid and once against Liverpool at Anfield. And then there was that quarter-final strike against Benfica and, even more significantly, that finish against AC Milan in the semi-finals. This season, he's bagged against Crvena Zvezda, the winner in Prague and a fantastic hat-trick against Monaco, goals which have brought him level with Sandro Mazzola in Europe (17). Then in Rotterdam, on the pitch of Feyenoord, the overtaking: 2-0 goal and 18 in the Nerazzurri!

In this special ranking there is also Adriano: the Brazilian centre-forward has scored a total of 18 goals in the Champions League with Inter, but 14 have come in the Champions League proper, while four have come in the preliminaries. Therefore, the statistic quietly hoists Lautaro to the top.

Mazzola and Lautaro met last spring at Appiano Gentile, with the Nerazzurri legend and Hall of Famer paying a visit to Simone Inzaghi’s team. A greeting and an intense conversation with the current Inter captain, and a connection between two captains (and also two No.10s, as Mazzola, after his iconic number 8, also wore the number 10 for Inter).

Mazzola's European nights began with the triumphant run in the 1963/64 European Cup. And his first two goals came against Monaco, of all teams. It is clear that the fates of the duo are closely intertwined. After that brace in the round of 16, Sandrino found the net against Partizan, scored twice against Borussia in the semis and took centre stage against Real Madrid in the legendary final in Vienna, where he netted a double.

The following season saw Mazzola bag three times in Europe's elite competition, including a first-leg goal against Liverpool at Anfield in a famous semi-final clash. Another European trophy was then added to the trophy cabinet following a 1-0 victory over Benfica at San Siro (Jair the scorer). In total, he scored 17 goals in the European Cup, where he also netted in the 1967 final against Celtic, although the Nerazzurri lost that game.