“Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” Meatloaf once sang, but for Mauro Icardi it still won’t be enough if the striker is to realise a childhood dream and join the Argentina squad in Russia.
Recently, they spoke of the Inter Milan captain’s triple challenge: to fire Inter into the Champions League for the first time in six seasons, have his name etched on Serie A’s prestigious Capocannoniere golden boot, and force Jorge Sampaoli to change his mind and include him on the 23-man list of World Cup hopefuls set to be finalised this week.
On a club front, these achievements were sealed in the most dramatic of fashions. In Rome, Lazio needed just a draw to cement their own involvement in Europe’s most prestigious tournament at Inter’s expense and seemed to be heading in the right direction after an early Ivan Perisic own goal put Lazio ahead and Felipe Anderson made it 2-1 after Danilo D’Ambrosio had equalised 20 minutes later.
In a battle of lone target men, Icardi’s defenders had done the Argentine a favour by keeping top-scoring rival Ciro Immobile at bay for the duration. When the 25-year-old’s 78th minute penalty was successfully converted, this put both strikers neck and neck on 29 goals for the aforementioned Capocannoniere as well as Lazio and Inter tied at 2-2.
Though Icardi, sharing the accolade for the second time in Italy, would have perhaps preferred to claim the prize outright, personal triumphs took a passenger seat when Matias Vecino’s 81st minute winner launched Inter into fourth place with a 3-2 victory and consequently back into European football given that they boasted the superior head-to-head record against their opponents - who finished the proceedings down to nine men in a fiery ending to heightened drama which had neutral fans heralding the Italian championship’s re-emergence to the summit of the continent’s best leagues.
Coming off the back of arguably his finest season, which has the likes of Real Madrid eager to acquire his services, the question now remains as to whether or not Icardi - who was personally told by Sampaoli in a one hour meeting in Milan that he only features in the coach’s plans should Sergio Agüero not recover from a knee injury in time – has done enough with his eleventh hour bid and will finally see himself in his country’s final squad set to be announced at 1pm local time in Buenos Aires.
