Former Inter defender Michele Serena believes that the Nerazzurri are still the favourites for the Scudetto, but that the Champions League will be trickier for them.
Speaking to Italian news outlet TMW Radio, the 51-year-old gave the view that the Nerazzurri must try and win their next two Champions League matches against Sheriff Tiraspol if they hope to progress to the knockout rounds of Europe’s top competition.
Inter drew two of the same opponents from last year’s Champions League group stage, in which they finished bottom of their group, in the form of Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk.
However, it has been new boys Sheriff Tiraspol who have proved to be the early front-runners in the group, producing shock wins against Shakhtar and Real to get off to a perfect start.
Inter have one point, the same as Shakhtar and three behind Real who beat them in their opening match, and they must get off the mark against Sheriff if they wish to get their group stage campaign back on track.
“Sheriff complicates everything in the Champions League,” Serena said. “I had seen them in the qualifying rounds – they ran like crazy and created lots of chances. They’re a surprise and complicate things a lot. Inter must win their head-to-head matches.”
And on the Nerazzurri’s prospects in Serie A he said, “The fight at the top is balanced. Inter are having the season that was expected.”
“Inter remain the favourites,” he went on, “but Napoli could fight until the end if they have the same continuity as now. Juventus will recover, but they have many teams ahead of them.”
