Inter travel to the Stadio Friuli on Tuesday night 28 April 2015 (kick off 20:45 CET) to take on Udinese after a superb 2-1 win against Roma which kept Inter’s hopes of a European place alive.
Inter are in 9th place after the weekend’s win and are now 4 points behind Fiorentina in 6th and the final Europa League qualifying place.
Ex Inter coach Andrea Stramaccioni’s Udinese team come into this game after an impressive 2-1 win against Inter’s city rivals AC Milan which snapped a 6 match winless run.
That win moved Udinese 14 points clear of the relegation zone into 13th place, and 7 points behind Inter.
Here is the Inter team news and probable line up as reported by Sky:
Samir Handanovic keeps his place to start in goal.
In defence Roberto Mancini will need to make a new combination as captain Andrea Ranocchia and Juan Jesus are both suspended for this game.
At right back Danilo D’Ambrosio is expected to keep his place and at left back Davide Santon is expected to play ahead of Yuto Nagatomo.
In central defence, Felipe is the favourite to partner Nemanja Vidic ahead of Marco Andreolli.
In midfield Gary Medel is available after serving a suspension against Roma. He is expected to regain his place at the expense of Marcelo Brozovic or Assane Gnoukouri and at this stage it looks like the Croatian could drop to the bench. Fredy Guarin is expected to complete the midfield three.
In the trequartista role Hernanes is expected to keep his place after scoring against Roma, ahead of Xherdan Shaqiri who will spend a third match starting on the bench.
Up top the usual partnership of Rodrigo Palacio and Mauro Icardi will start.
Probable Inter line up (subject to change): (4-3-1-2) Handanovic, D’Ambrosio, Felipe, Vidic, Santon, Guarin (c), Medel, Gnoukouri, Hernanes, Icardi, Palacio.
Bench: Carrizo, Berni, Sciacca, Donkor, Nagatomo, Di Marco, Kovacic, Obi, Brozovic, Palazzi, Podolski, Puscas, Shaqiri, Bonazzoli.
Some Stats:
In the earlier fixture this season Udinese came from a goal behind to beat Inter 2-1 at San Siro.
Udinese are a bit of a bogey team for Inter and have won 6 of the last 9 matches between the two clubs.
If Antonio Di Natale scores he will equal Roberto Baggio’s record of 205 goals in Serie A.
After last weekend’s 88th minute winner against Roma, Mauro Icardi is now on 17 goals in Serie A, 1 behind Carlos Tevez on 18 in the race for the capo-cannoniere crown.
Andrea Stramaccioni began his coaching career at Inter and guided the Nerazzurri to 9th place in the 2012/13 season before being shown the door.
Player to Watch: Mauro Icardi – The Argentine will be brimming with confidence after his match winning goal against Roma and I expect him to score again against Udinese.
My Prediction: Udinese 1-2 Inter
Scorers: Di Natale (Udinese), Icardi, Palacio (Inter)
Officials: Referee: Gianluca Rocchi Assistants: Padovan, Barbirati
Fourth Official: Marzaloni Additional Assistants: Peruzzo, Pezzuto
Author’s Note: Inter produced a great performance against Roma and Udinese will be confident after their win against AC Milan but I still believe, despite Inter’s recent record against Udinese, that with a European place still up for grabs that Inter can win this game and the next game against Chievo also and really put pressure on a Fiorentina team that have lost their last two matches.
Rocchi is a cunt and always manages to screw us, I’d watch for Medel’s tackles and Vidic’s hands inside the box. Otherwise I expect a win. Milan were dreadful against Udinese, but it was their own fault for playing so miserably. I’m sure Mancio has a few cards that Strama doesn’t know how to use yet.
Assane ( White Walker ) Gnoukouri has to start over brozovic, bro has not been out of form lately
Lol if he hasn’t been out of form then he should play 🙂 but yeah…He’s beginning to interest me..If his standards continue I see no sense in bringing Yaya toure to the club in all honesty.
Yaya toure is a must if we want scudetto next season. Youngster such as gnoukori, brozovic, kovacic wont enough without experienced decisive players.
If we win this, it will be our 5th game without a defeat, with 3 wins and 2 draws. We can do this, lets show some good points at the end of the season so we can translate well into the next season.
Our biggest advantage over the teams from 5th to 9th place is that we don’t miss any valuable players who are injuried. All other teams seem tired and exhausted , which for me will be one the breaking points in the battle. I give a credit to the medical staff for the freshness of the team.
Now is the time to provide some sort of rotation, to prevent further injuries. I would like to see shaqiri play instead of palacio, and let palacio go on the next game.