At the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday evening, Lautaro Martínez said Inter's Champions League push is "an objective" rather than an obsession. The captain backed his side to stand up to Real Madrid, and the trip comes with Inter unbeaten in their last 5 matches, while Madrid have 4 wins in their last 5.

Lautaro's framing before Real Madrid

"It's an objective. We all have dreams, but this is more than just an obsession," Lautaro told football-italia.net. He added that Inter must "stay calm" and recognise that there are "a lot of strong teams out there", before stressing that delivering trophies has been his message since he arrived at the club.

He also pushed back against any sense that Inter are travelling to Madrid just to admire the occasion. "We're facing a great team, with many champions and top-level players, but we have our own strengths," he said to madriduniversal.com. "We are growing as a team, as a group."

The form helps explain why he sounds confident. Inter finished the 2024-25 Champions League campaign by beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the run, then suffered a round of 16 exit last season that was described as a massive disappointment by their standards.

Why Inter believe they can compete

This is where the argument around Inter's European level gets interesting. Last season's round of 16 exit was a bad outcome for a club that had just beaten Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the 2024-25 Champions League campaign, and they are still carrying the edge of that disappointment into this tie.

Lautaro's own output underlines that he is not speaking from a distance. He has 2 Serie A goals in 3 league appearances this season, and his 7.22 Serie A rating across those games suggests he is already operating at a strong level. He also had a 9.16 rating in Inter's 3-2 win over Napoli, the sort of performance that tends to make a captain's confidence sound more credible.

The opponent is in decent shape too. Kylian Mbappé has 4 La Liga goals in 3 appearances this season, which is one reason Lautaro singled him out as "one of the best strikers in the world." He praised the level of the Madrid squad without pretending Inter lack their own tools.

Lautaro also kept the focus on the team. "The most important thing is that Inter wins," he said. "The group is more important than the individual."

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →