After the weekend’s disappointing loss to Lazio, Inter find themselves fighting for their 3rd place once again on a tricky away trip to Genoa. Match on Wednesday at 21:00 CET
Inter seem unable to put any light between them and the pack biting at their tails looking to usurp their Champions League spot. A home loss against Lazio in a week when all their direct competitors also lost means that there’s a chance that Inter start the match behind Milan who play their midweek match one day ahead.
A match away to Genoa is not the ideal scenario for an under pressure Inter to get back to winning ways. Under Cesare Prandelli the Grifoni have had a mixed bag of results but have also managed to move out of the relegation battle completely. Despite a weekend loss against Udinese, the hosts are probably still riding a high from their recent win against Juventus and be out to take the scalp of another top conternder.
With Mauro Icardi back in the squad, Luciano Spaletti can set his side up in the preferred and but understood tactical module. Whether Spaletti opts to play an offensive 4-3-3 with Joao Mario, Marcelo Brozovi and Roberto Gagliardini sharing midfield duties or whether the side lines up in the more frequently deployed 4-2-3-1 formation, expect the starting eleven to feel more comfortable than they did with a false number nine in Keita Balde over the weekend.
Possibly more importantly than the actual result, Inter need to put in a display full of fighting and desire to compensate for the toothless showing against Lazio.
Team News
Once again Mauro Icardi has dominated the news coming out of Appiano. Spaletti has confirmed that not only has the Argentine striker been called up, he will also start the match. Lautaro Martinez and Stefan DiVrij are both still out injured and the latter’s absence means that Joao Miranda will once again start instead of the Dutchman. Perhaps more worryingly is the number of players one yellow card away from suspension, this list includes Lautaro, Brozovic, Skriniar, Gagliardini and D’Ambrosio and seems to grow weekly.
Probable Inter line-up (4-3-3): Handanovic (C); Cedric, Miranda, Skriniar, Asamoah; Gagliardini, Brozovic, Joao Mario; Perisic, Icardi, Politano
Stats
Last Season: Genoa 2 – 0 Inter.
Last 10 Head to Head: Remarkably, the head to head between the two sides over the last eleven matches has the home side winning every encounter with no draws or away victories between the two sides since May of 2013.
Keep an Eye on
Mauro Icardi: Icardi’s road to redemption starts at the Marassi stadium. It is going to take a whole lot for Icardi to return to the Inter faithful’s good books, but with all eyes on him, a strong performance, a motivated performance, and hopefully a winning goal scored will be a good start.
Officials
Referee: Maurizio Mariani
Assistants: Vuoto, Tasso
Fourth Official: Chiffi
VAR Assistants: DiBello, Liberti
Prediction & Concluding Remarks
Prediction & scorers: Genoa 1-1 Inter with Skriniar scoring the goal to keep Inter in third.
Concluding remarks: Inter have generally been able to bounce back fairly well this season, but with the squad still missing key players in Lautaro and DiVrij, it seems a bit too much to ask of this side to return to Milano with all three points.
