Inter’s 4th Serie-A encounter for the 2018-19 season is just around the corner, with the Nerazzurri poised to take on newly-promoted Parma at the Giuzeppe Meazza stadium tomorrow at 15:00 CEST. And as Luciano Spalletti ponders on Inter’s starting line-up against the Emiliani, he will surely have the scintillating, mid-week, Champions League clash with Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham in mind.
Following a two-week international break, the Nerazzurri are in for a tough run in the next 3 weeks, with no less than 7 games to be played, two of which will see Inter face Harry Kane’s Tottenham at home and Hirving Lozano’s PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands in the first two games of this season’s Champions League Group Stages.
That said, the news emanating from Appiano Gentile seems positive for Inter. As reported by La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Spalletti’s men will be concluding the week’s training-plan this morning with some final preparations ahead of tomorrow’s match against Parma. Although some doubts remain as to Inter’s line-up tomorrow, Spalletti should be fielding a first-eleven similar, if not identical, to that which started the last Serie-A match away to Bologna, which Inter won 0-3.
A four-man defence is to be expected, while Italian international Roberto Gagliardini is set to start in the middle of the park alongside Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, considering that the former was left out of Inter’s Champions League squad and will therefore not feature on Tuesday evening against the Londoners.
Inter’s star-summer-signing Radja Nainggolan, who has had some time to recover from an injury sustained in mid-July, is set to lead the assault on Parma’s goal as the Nerazzurri’s only Central Attacking Midfielder. It will be up to the Belgian to penetrate Parma’s defence to create space for Inter’s striker, who would most likely be Ghanaian international Keita Balde. This is one spot Spalletti is still undecided on however, as we could see Inter captain Mauro Icardi start the match despite only returning from international duty on a long-haul flight from the United States yesterday.
Argentine sensation Lautaro Martinez will sit out tomorrow’s game; the 21-year-old is still training alone, recovering from a calf problem. Inter’s medical staff will be monitoring the youngster from day to day. All is well on the Vrsaljko-front too, with the Croatian having seemingly recovered from a problem with his left knee, which saw him subbed off after 19 minutes in Spain’s 6-0 thrashing of World-Cup runners-up Croatia. Vrsaljko is likely to start on the bench tomorrow however, with Danilo D’Ambrosio favoured in his stead.
Probable formation (4-2-3-1): Handanovic, D’Ambrosio, De Vrij, Skriniar, Asamoah, Gagliardini, Brozovic, Politano, Nainggolan, Perisic, Keita Balde.
