Down 2-0 in five minutes, Inter still beat Napoli 3-2 with a Lautaro Martínez double

For nearly an hour, this looked like Massimiliano Allegri's best night since taking over at Napoli. Then Inter remembered they were defending champions at home, and the whole thing turned inside out.

Napoli led 2-0 by the 53rd minute at San Siro. Inter won 3-2, with Lautaro Martínez scoring either side of a Marcus Thuram header — the second Lautaro goal arriving in the first minute of stoppage time to snatch all three points. 🔵⚫

Politano and Højlund put Napoli in control

Napoli were goalless but comfortable through the first half, then broke the game open in five second-half minutes: Matteo Politano finished on 50', and Rasmus Højlund made it 2-0 three minutes later. Allegri's side, back at the stadium where he used to coach Milan, had the perfect platform to frustrate the hosts.

Lautaro starts the fightback, Thuram levels it

Inter needed three minutes to respond. Lautaro Martínez pulled one back on 56' to make it 2-1, and the game stayed edgy until Marcus Thuram headed the equaliser on 82' to make it 2-2 with the clock running down.

Lautaro wins it in stoppage time

Napoli couldn't hold on. Deep into added time, Lautaro Martínez struck again on 90+1' to complete his brace and turn a game Inter had trailed for the better part of an hour into a 3-2 win — a result built on total control of the ball and 29 shots to Napoli's 16.

Match facts

• 50' — Matteo Politano (Napoli)
• 53' — Rasmus Højlund (Napoli)
• 56' — Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
• 82' — Marcus Thuram (Inter)
• 90+1' — Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
• 35' — A. Vergara booked (Napoli)
• 67' — L. Martínez booked (Inter)
• 77' — R. Marín booked (Napoli)
• Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro), Milan — Serie A matchday 3, Saturday 5 September 2026

How each side had gotten to San Siro

Inter arrived unbeaten through two rounds, but this was the least like either of the other two. The opening-day 4-1 win over promoted Monza was built on a second-half salvo — three goals in the fifteen minutes after the break, following an early Hakan Çalhanoglu strike and a Monza equaliser just before half-time. The following week at Cagliari, Çalhanoglu opened the scoring again from distance, in the ninth minute this time, and Inter spent the remaining eighty-one minutes defending a single goal that never doubled. Two different templates — a second-half avalanche, then a lone early goal nursed to the final whistle — and neither one had involved falling behind at any point. Trailing 2-0 to Napoli by the 53rd minute was a first for the champions this season.

Napoli's month had already swung both ways before they got to Milan. Massimiliano Allegri's first game in charge produced 82 goalless minutes at Genoa before Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench to score and set up Antonio Vergara inside five minutes, sealing a 2-0 win. The next week, at home to Como, the pattern reversed: Napoli themselves fell behind 2-0 inside 34 minutes, through Martin Baturina and Anastasios Douvikas, and Rasmus Højlund's reply was not enough to prevent Allegri's first defeat as Napoli coach. Taking a two-goal grip on a game inside the first hour, the way they did here through Politano and Højlund, was not new for this Napoli side. Losing that same grip was not new either — it had just never before happened to them twice in one afternoon.

Almost double the shots of the opening weekend

Inter's 29 shots here were close to double their tally from the opening weekend — 13 against Monza, a game they still won 4-1. The Cagliari total went unpublished in that article because the outlets covering it could not agree on a figure, but even allowing for that gap, a side that needed 29 attempts to score three goals against Napoli had to work far harder for this win than the scoreline of any of their first two matchdays suggests. Some of that comes down to Napoli defending a lead rather than chasing one for most of the afternoon; some of it is simply how long Napoli made Inter wait.

What's next

The win takes Inter to 9 points from three wins out of three, second in the table on goal difference alone behind Roma, who lead on the same points tally with a superior +9 to Inter's +5. Napoli, still finding their feet under Allegri, sit 11th on 3 points after one win and two defeats, level on points with 12th-placed Cagliari but ahead of them on goals scored, 5 to 1. Both sides are next in action after the international break, for matchday 4 — Inter will want to show this comeback was control, not a wobble; Napoli will want a full 90 minutes that matches their first hour here.