The talk in Argentina this week is that Mauro Icardi won’t be included in Jorge Sampaoli’s World Cup squad but that didn’t stop the Inter captain doing what he does best and scoring in a routine Serie A win over Cagliari.

The comfortable victory took Inter up to third and the inspirational Icardi took his personal tally in Serie A to 25, his best ever season and the first Inter player to reach the milestone since Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2008-09 and Ronaldo in 1997-98.

Inter were dominant from the off and should have been much further ahead at half time than the one-goal margin that Joao Cancelo’s first Serie A strike had provided.

You’re in elite company, Mauro Icardi 🔵⚫ pic.twitter.com/kWUBva8t0V

— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 17, 2018

Icardi had been influential during the opening period and after going close on a couple of occasions finally got the goal his performance deserved four minutes after the break.

The toe-poked finish took Icardi to 25 for the season and despite only just turning 25,  took the prolific centre forward to 106 Serie A goals in 185 appearances.

For all of his perceived issues off the field, there is no questioning Icardi’s finishing ability and if there is indeed no place for the striker in Argentina’s plans and things don’t go well in Russia, Jorge Sampaoli can expect to hear his name a lot more.

Icardi’s goal broke Cagliari’s weak resistance and Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic wrapped up the routine victory for Luciano Spalletti’s side.

Inter sit in third, two points ahead of Lazio and Roma, as the battle for Champions League qualification looks to go to the wire.

Mauro Icardi 🆚 Cagliari – His hold-up & link up play was brilliant and his 1st touch was close to immaculate last night.

A great performance to hit 25 goals in Serie A for the season. pic.twitter.com/UxkuSo4EFV

— InterYaSkriniar (@InterYaSkriniar) April 18, 2018