A roller coaster of a season is in its final stretch with just ten matches left to play, and Inter can lock in their Champions League qualification with a good run of results. Against Hellas Verona will be the first match of the final stretch; Forz Inter. Match on Saturday at 14:00CET
Team News
One is always nervous regarding the condition of returning players who have been called up for international duty. Thankfully, all players returned to Appiano injury free allowing the Mister to make his selection based purely on form and tactics. Expect Spaletti to deploy the formation and lineup that has worked well for him in the previous two games. The only other major news out of the Nerazzurri camp is the departure of Suning sporting director Walter Sabatini, and although it might have some deeper ramifications down the line, one can expect this bit of new to bear little impact on tomorrow’s match.
Probable Inter line-up (subject to change): (4-2-3-1) Handanovic; D’Ambrosio, Miranda, Skriniar, Cancelo; Gagliardini, Brozovic; Perisic, Rafinha, Candreva; Icardi (C)
Stats
Last Season: Not Played, Verona in B
Last 10 Head to Head: Inter have dominated the two sides’ encounters, and have not lost once to the Veronese in their last ten matches. In fact, Inter have taken all points from Hellas in an eye-watering eight out of said ten encounters.
Keep an Eye on
Mauro Icardi: Can one speak of anyone but Maurito at the moment? With his poker against Sampdoria last week and passing the century scoring mark in a Nerazzurri jersey, the young captain is in fine form. It will be difficult to imagine the weak Veronese defenses can withstand the Icardi onslaught and hopefully the Nerazzurri faithful will be in for another Icardi-fiesta.
Officials
Refereree: Gianluca “The Turd” Rocchi
Assistants: Lo Cicero, Liberti
Fourth Official: Aureliano
Additional Assistants: Guida, Fourneau
Prediction & Authors Note
Prediction & scorers: Inter 3 – 1 Hellas Verona with Icardi and Perisic on the score-sheet.
Author’s Note: While winning all three points will be the ultimate objective here, the manner in which Inter take to the pitch and conduct the full 90 minutes will be quite important too. In order for Inter to show their rivals (and themselves) that they mean business when it comes to Champions League qualification, they must go for the jugular whenever they step onto the pitch.