Tomorrow at 18:00 CET, Inter take on high flying Hellas Verona, in what is destined to be a hard fought contest by both teams to grab all three points.
Inter remain in fine form domestically, still occupying 2nd place in the table, and keep the pressure on the leaders Juventus. Meanwhile, Serie A newcomers Verona are having a solid start to their campaign. Many pegged Verona to be struggling in the relegation battle, but so far they are proving those people wrong, as they are sitting in 9th place and only 6 points off a place in Europe.
Of course it is early days in the Serie A, but this shows that Verona are certainly no pushovers and should not be underestimated. Lets look into how the teams are performing so far
Attack
Inter are scoring well this season, they are joint 2nd with Lazio in goals scored, 24 total, bested only by Atalanta with an impressive 30! Inter also sit 4th best for xG, an average of 1.84. There are no prizes for guessing who is top of that table.
They are averaging 15 shots on goal, with an accuracy of 37%. Inter’s two main strikers, Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez remain in fine form. Lukaku sits in 2nd place for the capocannonieri with 9 goals, and Martinez contributing with 5 of his own.
Hellas Verona are far from inspiring when it comes to their attacking prowess. They stand 2nd bottom of the table for goals scored, with a grand total of 9 which averages out at 0.8 per game. Things are a little better in terms of xG, as their average is 1.22 which puts them in 12th place. It is quite telling that their joint top scorer is none other than Miguel Veloso with 2 goals.
Defense
Inter having been having a little trouble at the back for the past few games. As of now they sit joint 15th with Roma both with 11, which isn’t too bad, but if Inter are serious about mounting a challenge to Juventus, then this needs improvement.
Things look a bit better with xG against, where Inter sit rock bottom with an average of 0.9, the next team up being Juventus on 1.1. This is a double edged sword as it seems although Inter’s opponents don’t look like they should score, they are still letting in goals.
Verona’s defense is something that should definitely be noted as this seems to be how they’ve managed to climb so high up the table. Believe it or not, but they are joint bottom of the goals conceded board, with none other than Juventus, both on 9.
It truly is a mark of how well Ivan Juric has done with his squad. In terms of xG against for Verona, they sit slap bang in the middle of the table with 1.45, showing they are somehow managing to stop other teams from scoring in most situations.
Key Players
Inter’s key player this week could be Stefano Sensi. Returning from an Achilles injury which set him back 3 weeks, he made an appearance off the bench on Tuesday when Inter played Dortmund, and could well make his full return to that starting line-up. That is if the recent reports about him being injured are untrue.
Inter seem to have been a little less sharp when going forward without Sensi there, as he has the ability to pick out important passes into dangerous areas, and also score goals himself. With Hellas proving to be a tough nut to crack, maybe Sensi could be the perfect hammer for Inter to smash them open with.
Verona’s key man must be Miguel Veloso. Anyone who is a follower of Serie A football knows this man well. He spent 5 years at Genoa, with a 6 year spell in between to Dinamo Kyiv, before joining Hellas Verona. His experience, skill, set piece ability and tremendous football IQ is proving to be fundamental to how Verona are playing and if he were to get injured would be a massive blow to the side.
Summary
Inter are the home side tonight, and this should give them an advantage, and they may need every bit of luck in order to bet their opponents. Hellas have not beaten inter in their last 9 meetings.
Inter have won 7 and drawn 2. Could tonight be the night that they peg a victory on the board against Conte’s formidable Inter side? Or will Inter continue to put pressure on their title rivals by easing past the Gialloblu? It is almost time to find out and one thing is for certain, you won’t want to miss it.
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