Inter travel to the Stadio Ferraris to take on Sampdoria on Sunday night (kick off 20:45 CET) on the back of a disappointing 2-1 loss against Wolfsburg which resulted in the Nerazzurri being dumped out of the Europa League.
Inter sit in 8th place and are now without a win in 5 matches in all competitions and are 8 points adrift of Sampdoria who sit in the last European place in 6th.
Sampdoria are in good form and have won 3 games in a row to return to the fight for 3rd place including an impressive 2-0 win last week at the Stadio Olympico against Roma.
This game sees the meeting of two good friends in Roberto Mancini and Sinisa Mihajlovic. Both coaches played together at Sampdoria and Lazio before Mancini signed Mihajlovic in his first spell in charge of Inter. Mihajlovic also became assistant to Mancini after he retired from playing for Inter.
Here is the team news and probable line up as reported by GDS:
Inter are expected to go back to the 4-3-1-2 formation after using 4-2-3-1 against Wolfsburg.
Samir Handanovic will return in goal to replace Juan Pablo Carrizo who played in midweek.
Danilo D’Ambrosio will replace Hugo Campagnaro at right back and Davide Santon is expected to keep his place at left back. In central defence we are likely to see the Andrea Ranocchia and Juan Jesus combination yet again.
In midfield the three will be Fredy Guarin, Gary Medel and Marcelo Brozovic, who is expected to replace Hernanes.
In the trequartista role Xherdan Shaqiri was rested in midweek after a thigh injury sustained against Cesena last week but it is thought that he could start ahead of Mateo Kovacic, who is one of a number of players out of form.
Up top Lukas Podolski could start with Mauro Icardi despite Rodrigo Palacio’s goal scoring form recently.
Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Yuto Nagatomo, Jonathan and Dodo are all out due to injury.
Probable Inter line up (subject to change): (4-3-1-2) Handanovic, D’Ambrosio, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus, Santon, Guarin, Medel, Brozovic, Shaqiri, Icardi, Podolski.
Bench: Carrizo, Berni, Andreolli, Campagnaro, Vidic, Felipe, Di Marco, Kovacic, Obi, Hernanes, Palacio, Puscas, Bonazzoli, Camara.
Some Stats:
This match will have a sentimental feel to both clubs’ history with ex players on both sides.
Emiliano Viviano had a 6 month spell at Inter from June-December 2011 but never made an appearance after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament. Sampdoria captain Angelo Palombo also had a 6 month spell at Inter from January-June 2012 but he failed to live up to his hype at the time. The last of the ex Inter players is a legend in the history of the club, Samuel Eto’o was an integral part of Inter’s famous treble winning team of 2010.
The ex Sampdoria players in Inter’s squad are Hugo Campagnaro who played for the Blucherchiati from 2007-09 and Mauro Icardi who made his breakthrough with the Genoese club from 2011-13.
Sampdoria are yet to win a match by more than 2 goals this season.
Roberto Mancini has never lost to Sampdoria in his managerial career.
Player to Watch: Mauro Icardi – The Argentine may be an ex Sampdoria player but his record of scoring against them is impressive with 4 goals in 3 matches against his former employers.
My Prediction: Sampdoria 1-2 Inter
Scorers: Eto’o (Sampdoria), Icardi x2 (Inter)
Officials: Referee: Paolo Valeri Assistants: Posado, Marzaloni
Fourth Official: Tasso Additional Assistants: Guida, Gavilucci
Author’s Note: I know Sampdoria are in form and are more rested having not played since Monday but I have a gut feeling that we can win this game and close the gap to the Europa League place to 5 points with 10 games to play. Well we hope anyway.
Here at SempreInter we would also like to hear your predictions ahead of the game.
Forza Inter!