Inter Deny Roma as Martínez Haunts Gasperini Again

Inter remain unbeaten in Serie A after recovering from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Roma on Sunday, the Guardian's Serie A correspondent Nicky Bandini reported. Lautaro Martínez scored twice at the Stadio Olimpico to deny Gian Piero Gasperini's side a win that would have carried the capital club level with the champions. The Guardian described the result as Inter denying their would-be title rivals at the first serious test of the season.

The game turned on Martínez, whose double extended a personal record the Guardian framed as the story of the afternoon: he has still never lost to a team coached by Gasperini. Roma had controlled the opening phase and led by two goals at their own ground before the Inter captain pulled one back and then levelled. Gasperini, the Guardian noted, could not keep himself from smiling as he crossed the pitch afterwards to greet the man who had undone his team.

The draw leaves the early title picture unresolved rather than settled. Inter arrived at the Olimpico as champions and left with their unbeaten start intact, but the manner of the recovery — two goals conceded before half-time against a direct rival — is the kind of detail the foreign press seizes on when it assesses whether a scudetto race will be a procession or a contest. The Guardian's match report treated the fixture as a genuine test of Inter's credentials rather than a routine away day.

For Roma the cost is measured in points forgone at home. Gasperini's team had the game where they wanted it and could not close it out, which is the recurring criticism of his sides in the international coverage: attractive, aggressive, and occasionally unable to protect an advantage. The Guardian's account of his smile at full time read less as contentment than recognition of a familiar pattern.

Martínez's record against Gasperini is now the sort of statistic that travels. Foreign coverage of Serie A tends to build its narratives around individual duels — a striker against a system, a coach against an old adversary — and this result supplies another entry. The Guardian also flagged the wider weekend: Paris FC extended their unbeaten Ligue 1 start by beating Liam Rosenior's former Strasbourg side 2-1 in a match marred by abusive chants, and Mohamed Salah scored a hat-trick elsewhere in Europe.

The Serie A season is three or four rounds old at most, which is early enough that no foreign desk will yet call the title. What the Olimpico result does establish is that Inter can absorb a bad half against a rival and still take something from the ground, and that Roma can produce the performance without the reward. Both readings will be tested again before the autumn international break.

Italian clubs return to domestic duty next weekend and to European competition after that, where the foreign press will judge Serie A's strength by results rather than by reputations. Inter's unbeaten start and Roma's dropped points will be weighed against those European nights. Until then, the Guardian's headline stands as the summary the world will carry: the champions denied their would-be rivals, and one striker still haunting one coach.