This coming season Inter will return to the UEFA Champions League for the first time in seven years and what is striking is that most of the players on Inter coach Luciano Spalletti’s roster lack experience of playing in European football’s top club competition.

Italian newspaper Tuttosport explains: “Besides Radja Nainggolan, Inter have only six players that have at least one appearance in Europe’s premier competition: Kwadwo Asamoah, Joao Miranda, Ivan Perisic, Andrea Ranocchia, Marcelo Brozovic and Borja Valero. The combined number of UCL games between these 7 is 93.

“Due to this inexperience there are two handicaps that Inter will face in this year’s edition of UCL. First of all Inter will be in the fourth pot when it is time for the draw, meaning that they will at least face two big teams. The second handicap comes from the settlement agreement, signed at the time by Marco Fassone, which states that Inter can only register 22 players for the tournament and two of those players must be from the youth academy. Inter also have to balance every new signing with an exit in order for that player to make the list.”