Inter seemed relatively toothless away to Salernitana until Lautaro Martinez came off the bench and scored four goals in 25 minutes to keep them top of the table, making history in the process.
No substitute had ever scored four goals in a Serie A match before.
The Nerazzurri saw their perfect Serie A record ended by a shock home defeat to Sassuolo in the midweek round, but the pressure was still on to rotate the squad, with Davide Frattesi, Marko Arnautovic, Stefano Sensi and Juan Cuadrado injured, so Davy Klaassen and Alexis Sanchez got their first starts. Antonio Candreva and Lassana Coulibaly were still out of action, but Boulaye Dia returned for the winless hosts a month after injury and transfer dispute issues.
Guillermo Ochoa fingertipped an unorthodox Marcus Thuram effort over the bar, as the Hakan Calhanoglu free kick came off his chest more than his head, then after the resulting corner Alexis Sanchez blasted over from eight yards.
Salernitana got through the early siege and had their own chances, Benjamin Pavard charging down the Jovane Cabral effort from the edge of the area and Grigoris Kastanos drilling inches wide of the far post.
Klaassen controlled a long ball well and cut inside for his rocket to be charged down, while Cabral again blasted off target from a promising position.
Struggling to make any impact as the game wore on, Simone Inzaghi introduced some of the big guns off the bench. It proved crucial, because Thuram rolled across from the left and Lautaro Martinez anticipated the on-rushing Ochoa with the most delightful little dink over him into the empty net from seven yards.
Salernitana had the ball in the net too just three minutes later when Lautaro Martinez was robbed in midfield and Martegani threaded through for Mateusz Legowski, but the Polish striker had wandered offside.
Kristjan Asllani’s free kick skimmed the crossbar after the Norbert Gyomber rugby tackle on Lautaro Martinez, but the second was also scored by the Argentine.
Dumfries won back possession, Lautaro spread it out wide to the right for Barella, who pulled it back for the centre-forward to sweep in first time from 12 yards with his right boot.
It still wasn’t over, as Matteo Lovato pulled down Thuram by the jersey for a penalty, which Lautaro Martinez converted for the hat-trick.
Lautaro Martinez added a fourth too, meeting the Carlos Augusto pull-back from the left to fire in from 10 yards.
Salernitana 0-4 Inter
Lautaro Martinez 63, 77, pen 85, 88 (I)
Player statistic
| 25' |  |
Hakan Calhanoglu |
| Jovane | |
60' | ||
| 62' |  |
Lautaro Martínez (Assist: Marcus Thuram) | ||
| Norbert Gyomber | |
69' | ||
| 77' | |
Lautaro Martínez (Assist: Nicolò Barella) | ||
| 85' |  |
Lautaro Martínez | ||
| 89' | |
Lautaro Martínez (Assist: Carlos Augusto) |
Match statistic
Starting lineups
Substitutes
