European football: Martínez double gives Inter comeback draw at Roma

Lautaro Martínez rode to Inter’s rescue as the Serie A champions fought back from two-down to force a 2-2 draw at Roma, in a meeting of what had been the last two sides with 100% records.

Manu Koné’s double had given Roma a 2-0 lead at half-time but for the second time in a week Cristian Chivu’s side, inspired by Martínez, showed mettle as the champions fought back from such a deficit.

After the announcement earlier in the day of the death of Sandro Mazzola at the age of 83, both sides paid hommage to the former Inter and Italy playmaker prior to kick-off, with the Nerazzurri also sporting black armbands.

Roma raced out of the blocks as Koné sent them ahead with less than six minutes on the clock when he readjusted his body well to rifle home Nahuel Molina’s knockdown.

The champions had bounced back from being 2-0 down inside the opening 16 minutes at home to Udinese to emerge 5-3 winners on Monday. But Inter were not at the races for most of the opening period at the Stadio Olimpico as Paulo Dybala twice threatened to double the hosts’ advantage.

Marcus Thuram had a golden opportunity to get Chivu’s men level in the 26th minute but could only fire straight at Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar.

A clever Curtis Jones pass then presented Alessandro Bastoni with a chance seven minutes later, but the Italy defender thrashed the ball against a post from a tight angle.

However, just as Inter slowly seemed to be waking up, Koné had the ball in the net again when he tucked in from close range at the back post on 37 minutes.

His celebrations were initially cut short by the assistant’s flag before the video assistant referee intervened and, after a lengthy review, Davide Massa pointed to the centre circle as the 25-year-old skipped off in delight after notching the sixth Serie A goal of his career.

Martínez halved the deficit less than a minute after the interval with a scuffed finish from Thuram’s pull-back that just crept perfectly into the side-netting of Mile Svilar’s far post.

Just as the match appeared to be petering out going into the final 10 minutes, a sudden goalmouth scramble saw Svilar make a sharp save before Martínez headed onto the bar under pressure. Inter, however, managed to recycle the ball and it came back to the Argentinian inside the box and this time he made no mistake as he controlled with his thigh and arrowed a finish past the Serb to ensure the spoils were shared.

Paris FC extended their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 campaign, beating Liam Rosenior’s old charges Strasbourg 2-1 in a match marred by abusive chants towards the Englishman from visiting fans.

The game was halted in the second half as Rosenior was targeted by his former supporters. There were also ugly scenes after the final whistle as Rosenior motioned to remonstrate with the away fans and had to be pulled away by his players.

Goals from Ilan Kebbal on 18 minutes and Pablo Pagis 12 minutes into the second half were enough for the capital club to add a third win to their two draws so far this campaign, despite conceding a late own goal by Moustapha Mbow.

Maximilian Beier’s 70th-minute winner secured Borussia Dortmund a 1-0 victory at Stuttgart as they moved to the top of the early Bundesliga table. Beier tapped in from Jobe Bellingham’s low cross to send Dortmund to the summit for the first time since May 2023, a run of 1,212 days since they threw away the title with a final-day home draw against Mainz.

The victory also marks the first time in a decade Dortmund have won their opening four league matches. “Sounds good to me,” Beier told Sky Germany. “We’ll take that.”

Earlier, Freiburg had missed a chance to return to the top of the Bundesliga after being held to a 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt. Bayern Munich’s ruthless 7-0 win over Union Berlin on Friday had put them top overnight.

Several new members of the Jürgen Klopp’s 44-man Germany squad shone on both sides in a see-sawing encounter. Frankfurt’s Younes Ebnoutalib finished off a lovely team move to score 10 minutes in, two days after a surprise first call-up.

Derry Scherhant, another of Klopp’s lesser-known new additions, levelled things up for Freiburg, but Jonathan Burkardt edged Frankfurt back in front. Scherhant created a second for Yuito Suzuki to grab Freiburg a point and leave them level with Bayern on 10 points.

The West Ham loanee Niclas Füllkrug continued his stunning form on his return to Germany, scoring for a third-straight Bundesliga match as hosts Werder Bremen came from two goals down to win 3-2 against Augsburg. Füllkrug levelled things up with a blistering long-range effort in the 86th minute, before Mitchell Weiser blasted in a winner in stoppage time.

Elsewhere, Hamburg notched their first goal, win and points of the season in a comfortable 2-1 home victory over Cologne. Albert Gronbaek laid on goals for Nicolas Capaldo and Yussuf Poulsen to help the hosts, one of the giants of German football, drag themselves off the bottom of the table.

Hamburg climbed past Borussia Mönchengladbach, who lost their fourth straight game in a wild 4-3 defeat by visitors Mainz. Six days after bidding farewell to their sacked coach, Eugen Polanski, things went from bad to worse for the hosts. Gladbach also missed a penalty and are the only Bundesliga side without a point after four matches.