Martinez and his coach Antonio Conte get into a fistfight! Honestly!

Much was said afterwards about a possible rift between Inter boss Antonio Conte and his star attacker Lautaro Martinez. They let the entire drama blow over and used the rumours to propel their joke about having a fistfight to settle the argument. And the fistfight happened!

Argentinean forward Lautaro was a furious man on Wednesday night. During Inter’s 3-1 win over AS Roma, he was fuming about being substituted in a match he didn’t even start. His body language was a clear indication that he wasn’t happy with his coach’s decision and his emotions got the better of him. The former Chelsea and Juventus coach harshly reproached the striker and warned him never to react like that again.

The argument prompted speculation about the relationship within the club and possibly a serious falling out between Conte and Martinez. But it was only a false alarm!

Inter published a video of the two men preparing for a boxing match to settle their dispute. A makeshift ring was created at Inter’s training pitch, Martinez and Conte had their gloves on, and the rest of the players and staff stood around the ring to cheer the fighters on. Romelu Lukaku took the mic to announce the fight the way it’s done in professional boxing. There were laughs and smiles all around. Winning the title after a ten-year wait will do that to the atmosphere at the training ground.

On a more serious note, Conte’s assistant Cristian Stellini explained what happened after the game.

“This is something that also happened to me 14 years ago when Conte was my coach, and I was still a player. He substituted me after 20 minutes. This is an example of the mentality we want to see. Even if the result is already secure, we expect all the players to give the maximum effort. At that moment, Lautaro was not playing up to the right standard, and we want players who are always fully focused. Some things remain on the pitch, it’s all in the past now, and we will look forward to the next match.”

Respect (©AFP)

When Stellini was talking about the next match, he didn’t specify if it would be a football match or a boxing match!

The video cut of just before the start of the first round, so we cannot say what the outcome was. But, since Inter are in such fine form – we’re sure it was a cracking match!