Inter gets the Lautaro–Thuram duo back for Madrid

Inter travel to Madrid for their Champions League clash at the Bernabéu with a clear boost: Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram have regrouped in time, according to L'Équipe. The piece also underlines the weight of the last time Inter left Santiago Bernabéu with a win in European competition: it dates back to 22 May 2010, when Diego Milito steered the team to a 2-0 victory in the final.

Duo built for Madrid

Lautaro is described as being driven by the idea of repeating a landmark night. L'Équipe adds that he even turned down Barcelona’s advances this summer. In today’s Inter, the current captain is portrayed as especially inseparable from Thuram, with both forming the go-to attacking combination.

The most recent spark came on Saturday: Inter completed a comeback versus Napoli, overturning a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2. Per L'Équipe, the turnaround was powered by Lautaro’s brace plus a goal from the French forward.

What Chivu said

Ahead of the big test, Cristian Chivu framed the team’s goal as continuing to add major chapters to Inter’s history, as quoted by L'Équipe. He also assessed Thuram, noting that the physical side is improving and that confidence is higher after his first goal: “Physically, he’s getting better and better... above all, he has more confidence after his first goal.”

Chivu then spelled out how the forwards complement each other depending on the matchup: while one option is better in the box and another is more effective off-the-ball, Thuram attacks the space behind the line and Lautaro contributes more to the build-up, with the duo kept as the preferred solution for the biggest fixtures, according to L'Équipe.