Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi has decided to start Josep Martinez in goal and Joaquin Correa in attack against Genoa. This evening’s Serie A Matchday 26 clash kicks off at 20.45 CET.
This evening, Inter Milan host Genoa in Serie A at the San Siro.
The match is virtually must-win for Inter, after last Sunday’s Derby d’Italia defeat to Juventus.
Moreover, that was not the first negative result for Inter in February. They have also dropped points against the likes of AC Milan and Fiorentina.
Meanwhile, the Nerazzurri take on Napoli in a huge top-of-the-table clash next weekend. Therefore, they’ll certainly want to head into that encounter with three points.
Genoa will not make things easy for Inter, however. The most recent meeting between the two teams ended in a 2-2 draw.
Josep Martinez Makes First Serie A Start For Inter Milan
The biggest piece of team news for Inter Milan is in goal.
Yann Sommer is out after fracturing his thumb in training. Therefore, the 36-year-old’s understudy Josep Martinez makes his first ever Serie A start for Inter.
By coincidence, this comes against Martinez’s former team Genoa.
Then, in defense, it is the same back three that started against Juventus last weekend. Therefore, Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi, and Benjamin Pavard all start.
Meanwhile, in midfield there’s another notable change.
Hakan Calhanoglu gets a rest; therefore, Kristjan Asllani starts at the base of midfield.
Then, completing the trio are Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Nicolo Barella.
On the flanks, meanwhile, Federico Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries keep their places from last Sunday’s match.
Lastly, in attack Joaquin Correa makes his second start of the season, partnering Lautaro Martinez.
In terms of injuries, apart from Sommer Inter have the likes of Marcus Thuram and Carlos Augusto on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, all of Bastoni, Mkhitaryan, and Barella are one booking away from suspension. However, Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi has decided to risk all three despite the match against Napoli being next weekend.
Official Starting Lineups: Inter Milan Vs Genoa: Martinez, Asllani & Correa Start
Inter Milan (3-5-2): Josep Martinez; Benjamin Pavard, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Kristjan Asllani, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Federico Dimarco; Joaquin Correa, Lautaro Martinez.
Substitutes: Alessandro Calligaris, Matteo Zamarian, Stefan de Vrij, Yann Bisseck, Matteo Darmian, Nicola Zalewski, Hakan Calghanoglu, Davide Frattesi, Piotr Zielinski, Mehdi Taremi, Marko Arnautovic.
Coach: Simone Inzaghi.
Suspended: no one.
Injured and unavailable: Raffaele Di Gennaro, Yann Sommer, Marcus Thuram, Carlos Augusto.
Genoa (3-4-2-1): Leali; Sabelli, Bani, Vasquez; Zanoli, Masini, Frendrup, Martin; Ekhator, Miretti; Pinamonti.
Substitutes: Siegrist, Sommariva, Matturro, Kassa, Norton-Cuffy, De Winter, Venturino, Onana, Malinovskyi, Cuenca, Cornet, Messias, Ekuban.
Coach: Vieira.
Suspended: no one.
Injured and unavailble: Thorsby, Badelj, Vitinha, Ahanor.
Referee: Piccinini.
Assistant referees: Cecconi and Vecchi.
Fourth official: Arena.
VAR: Serra and Chiffi.
Does this work?
A win is all that matters. Slow, predictable and sloppy is a recipe for losing. The fact that DiMarco and Bastoni cannot play 90 minutes ever is very troubling! Moving an old man like Acebi out wide is a disaster waiting to happen. Asllani is dreadful. Once Taremi came on I understood why Correa started. Useless 2nd strikers both.
Does this work?
Please, Napoli don’t win this time. Make 4th draw in a row. 😀
I am happy. It does not matter if we win 1-0 or 5-0; the important thing is to win every and each game. The main issue is not chance creation. We create chances. But we have difficulty with finishing them. I hope Inzaghi and the guys will do sth about this soon.
Win and 3 points but we could lost. Let me see and enjoy table until Napoli match.
For the first time this season Inter actually took the opportunity to go top when they have failed to do so in so many occassions. Big difference is Inter actually ended the match with their best players they have available.
3 points.
Can’t believe we pay Darmian a salary
Don’t forget, we concede many goals at last minutes. :S
taremi is so sloppy. not inter materials. we need 2 strikers next summer
I would go for 1 striker and Pio Esposito
El Toro! At least we see our Inter at top of table for 16 hours. 😛
OK, I won’t ask for 2nd goal, just don’t mess up
Wait so playing your best players and if they are hungry then you actually score. That midfield of Barella-Zielinski and Hakan is hands down the best midfield in the league.
But…but….I thought Asllani and Frattesi were the future of the club. Aren’t we winning the UCL because we have 2 players for each position? lol
Whoever was thinking that Asllani is the future clearly is living in a different dimension. Frattesi is a goal scorer he always has and it will always be the case. The problem is Inzaghi trying to force Asllani when he keeps under performing consistently. While playing those three guys (Barella-Zielinski and Hakan) at least guarantees you creativity each one of them have so much experience both for club and country. All can handle pressure and produce something special. For instant Barella was barely jogging but almost assisted for the second goal for Darmian while Zielinski it seems he couldn’t get dispossessed and Hakan corner created the goal. If Inter wants to win matches then maybe they can just focus on doing that by simply playing your best players unlike in the Juve match Inzaghi tried to be a genius by taking out both Bastoni and Dimarco at the same time
I agree with everything you say, apart from on Frattesi. He might score some goals, but he scores because he gives so little to the play, that the opponent defenders forget he is still on the pitch.
It is much easier to talk about this or that as a fan.
Sure, we always want the best players to be playing on the field. Sure we want Hakan, Barella, and Zielinski to play all the time, for the whole 90 min for us.
The problem is we need to see the whole picture as a coach, as Inzaghi, as a human being.
For example, there were many times that Inzaghi was forced to make subs due to yellow cards in the match. Or in a situation where the players are getting tired. We have seen that at certain matches Bastoni, Di Marco and Hakan can not cope for 90 minutes. Tactically, you want fresh legs against speedy opponents. Against speedy Conceicao, for example.
It is a long league, you can not rely on these three players all the time. As a coach, you make the substitutions for a lot of factors or reasons: to keep your important players fit or not tired, to keep your important players avoiding. cards for important matches, to keep your bench players always feeling important in the team (Mostly fans like us ignoring this aspect), to give experience for the young players to gain confidence, or even to give chances for under-performing players to boost their morale etc etc.
All of these things need to be considered carefully by Inzaghi. Not easy.
In short, we can not rely on these 3 players all the whole time.
If you said that ‘ The problem is Inzaghi trying to force Asllani . . . , then I’ll say the problem is Inzaghi is forced to use the players being offered to him. It is normal that he needs to rotate all the players he has, so it is the management’s job to provide him with better players than Aslani or someone reliable to back up Hakan, Barella, Bastoni or even Lautaro.
The issue is that for a long time Inzaghi overused Hakan&Co, even vs bottom table teams last season when we were many points ahead of the second place. It caused 2 problems: 1. Hakan&Co get easily tired this season 2. the development of Frattesi and Asllani was derailed. Now those those problems combined are forcing Inzaghi to play Asllani and Frattesi who are not able to fit with the team. Inzaghi needs to improve his rotation decision-making.
Frattessi should’ve started instead of Correa
nice one calha and lautaro
FINALLY A REAL CORNER!!
We gotta stop trying to pass the ball in to the net
we can’t rely on old guard like miki and acerbi in hectic full season. its shame
Taremi Aslani Mikhtarian did nothing in second half LOL Napoli won the Scuedetto 100%
Lets wait and see. We are weak, Napoli is weak. The less weak one will win the Scudetto. lol
*least
LOL inter is trash! Gasperini will not renew with Atalanta. I have a feeling genoa will win!
For the love of god make some subs you moron
We have no midfield !!!
What is inzaghi watching!!?
Just take out Mikhi it’s getting crazy now
We play like we lost already Scudetto. No motivation.
Dimarco and bastoni has to start crossing the ball.
LOL zero shot on target LOL Napoli already won tomorrow’s match against Como 4-0 So bye bye Scudetto. Correa and management for not getting a striker cost inter all trophies this season. They will never the CL this year, No trophy. Correa should receive zero salary and should pay out of pocket for others teammate salary the l.oser got injured. How much does he play anyway?
What is going on with inter? As soon as they enter the pitch they look tired and afraid to create chances?
we soooooo need one lucky goal tonight. inter seems to perform better when they are playing every 3 days, it looks like they get bored waiting for 7 days, and it reflects in their game. we dominated possession today without doing anything with it.
anyone else noticed, inters slump in performances has corresponded to the switch from discus to this farce. come on Nina at least for the sake of inter get discus back..
What is going on with this inter? The soon they enter the pitch its like they dont know what to do with the ball or they look afraid to move forward!!! They just keep passing the ball back or lose it to the other team.. The team looks lost and afraid!!! INZAGHI DO SOMETHING!!! !!!
Lautaro tried to show some spirit and try to move the ball quickly but if you have players like Asllani in the middle then you’d know where he will automatically pass the ball first before checking if he can go forward. Mikhi tho he’s just too toothless in front of goal to count on him on this kind of match where the opposition is really just looking for a point. Frattesi and Zielinski must come on the only issue here is if Inzaghi decides to shoot himself in the foot again and take out the outlets in attack from the left side all at once(Bastoni and Dimarco) who seemed hesitant when trying to deliver those crosses because Correa isn’t that good with his headers and Lautaro is double marked
What is going on with this inter? The soon they enter the pitch its like they dont know what to do with the ball or they look afraid to move forward!!! They just keep passing the ball back or lose it to the other team.. The team looks lost and afraid!!! INZAGHI DO SOMETHING!!!
Will this clown ever learn?!
Mikhi is too old
Asllani is too crap
It honestly looks like he’s losing the squad, distinct lack of effort.
Lautaro is back to his slump but at least he tries.
Even Dumfries who’s been good recently is trash, take someone on ffs
even you place the best midfielders to replace miki and asllani wont change a thing. It is so clearly the team playing like sht. Acerbi passed ball out of bound for how many times? Bastoni is afraid of even trying to cross, Demarco cant make any cross successfully, Barella is trying but still not able to control the ball, yes Lauti is trying but clearly he cant make any pass. Not mention Correa’s bad passes.
Agreed. Some people are scapegoating Asllani and Mikhi. They are not doing enough, but so is the team overall. This team is so far from the level displayed last season.
most boring half this season. Fans are booing there for a reason, seems team collapsed hard after went into 2025. Lauti looks so tired and team just pass the ball to opponents. I wont say its the worst half since we havent conceded goal yet. Lauti’s agent said he and Haaland are the same level player, but i really didnt see Haaland is so tired for just playing one game a week. Either mindset is gone or the training was horribly exhausted for the players.
asslani so Mediocre. cant passing, cant crossing, cant link up. other players underperform.
you just described Lauti, Demarco, Acerbi, Miki and Correa in the first half.
Thank you, no one has been saying it but dimarco has been way too passive lately. He passes back more often than Dumfries now.
It is beyond me that Inzaghi use Correa at all. He is horrible… and get injured. What a surprise!
Huge pressure on Martinez (keeper) I can’t believe we won’t have Sommer for the most crucial games (ucl, coppa italia and Napoli even Atalanta) this could destroy our season….
We have had sooo many chances to overtake Napoli but have blown it completely. Every game now is must win since we are playing catch up but because Napoli only have the league to focus on and nothing else, they have more rest and our squad is not good enough to fight for two major competitions. I blame management for not spending more on signings last summer and we only got zalewski in the winter.
If we keep playing like lately, instead of getting the Scudetto, we will be fighting for a top 4 spot.
inter need players with speed and dribbling skill to break down sturborn low block – iam still missing perisic who scored juv away and home in ucl.
Do we not cross the ball anymore???
Inter are in trouble because Correa is just so bad even in making simple passes
TBH not his fault only. Look at how many lose balls from the whole team. This is not a champion level team play.
Bastoni and Demarco have been so poor this last 2-3 games. There is no chance they will finish the game.
We are not dangerous at all. I can’t acccept draw this time. Loss neither. 😛
Team is very slow and very predictable.
Very typical of old teams.
like i said, its thuram and correa job.
Why pass the fukkin ball back dimarco u *****
Every result is possible. But, Inter thrashed small teams. So as pessimistic fan, i expect good match from our boys and win. Maybe just win.
Ffs asllani …… zielinski has started to do well at CDM is he also a bit injured? otherwise it’s a stupid change from the coach.
We really need a win today. I feel Como might cause trouble to Napoli.
Sir, you are a prophet!!!!!! What a prediction!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice job!! Keep going!!!!
Last time lord Correa lead us to the win. Hope the same this game too!!!! Let’s go boys!!