Inter Milan coach Cristian Chivu has decided to start Sebastiano Esposito in attack against Monterey. Today’s FIFA Club World Cup group stage opener kicks off at 3.00 CET.
Inter Milan begin a new era today, in several respects.
Gli 1️⃣1️⃣⚫🔵 di #MonterreyInter 💪@FIFACWC | June 14 – July 13 | Every Game | Free | https://t.co/ngKr1QlJUk |#ForzaInter #FIFACWC #TakeItToTheWorld #MonterreyInter pic.twitter.com/8CwaH70smw
— Inter ⭐⭐ (@Inter) June 17, 2025
Cristian Chivu will take charge of his first match as Nerazzurri coach. Furthermore, it will be the opening match of a new competition for Inter, the expanded Club World Cup.
Inter take on Mexican giants Monterrey in Los Angeles to kick off their group stage.
And there are a number of notable lineup selections from Chivu in his first ever match on the bench for Inter.
Petar Sucic & Luis Henrique Start On The Bench
Firstly, new Inter signings Petar Sucic and Luis Henrique start on the bench.
The Croatian international only joined the Nerazzurri this month – however, he has come straight into the starting eleven in his first ever match with the club.
Meanwhile, in goal Yann Sommer starts.
Then in defense, it is the trio of Alessandro Bastoni, Stefan de Vrij, and Benjamin Pavard.
Meanwhile, along with Sucic in midfield the likes of Kristjan Asllani and Henrikh Mkhitaryan start.
Sebastiano Esposito Partners Lautaro Martinez In Attack
Then, at left-wingback Carlos Augusto starts for the Nerazzurri.
Meanwhile, on the right flank it is Dutch international Matteo Darmian.
In attack, meanwhile, there is a particularly notable name. Sebastiano Esposito gets the start, having returned from his loan spell with Empoli last season.
With the likes of Mehdi Taremi unavailable and Marcus Thuram not at his best, Chivu has given the 22-year-old the nod. Therefore, he partners Lautaro Martinez in attack.
Official Starting Lineups: Monterrey Vs Inter Milan: Sucic & Esposito Start
Monterrey (3-4-2-1): Andrada; Medina, Sergio Ramos, Guzman; Chavez, Rodriguez, Torres, Arteaga; Canales, Ocampos; Berterame.
Substitutes: Cardenas, Ambriz, Deossa, Alvarado, Aguirre, Rojas, Corona, Cortizo, Gonzalez, Reyes, Sanchez, De la Rosa, Leone, Moxica, Fimbres.
Coach: Torrent.
Suspended: no one.
Injured and unavailable: Mele, Salcedo.
Inter Milan (3-5-2): Yann Sommer; Benjamin Pavard, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Matteo Darmian, Nicolo Barella, Kristjan Asllani, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Carlos Augusto; Sebastiano Esposito, Lautaro Martinez.
Substitutes: Josep Martinez, Raffaele Di Gennaro, Alessandro Calligaris, Stefan de Vrij, Tomas Palacios, Gabriele Re Cecconi, Federico Dimarco, Luis Henrique, Nicola Zalewski, Matteo Cocchi, Petar Sucic, Thomas Berenbruch, Valentin Carboni, Giacomo De Pieri, Marcus Thuram.
Coach: Cristian Chivu.
Suspended: no one.
Injured and unavailable: Sebastiano Pio Esposito, Piotr Zielinski, Mehdi Taremi, Yann Bisseck, Hakan Calhanoglu, Denzel Dumfries, Davide Frattesi.
Referee: Pereira Sampaio.
Assistant referees: Boschilla and Pires.
Fourth official: Tejera.
VAR: Gallo, Lara, and Hernandez
I think it’s a good thing that we deliver average performances in these useless matches. if we start winning 10-0 every game oaktree and co will stop buying us better players. let’s show them we need reinforcements. that being said Monterrey played 30 off games in 24-25. Inter has played 60! and we have a new coach with new tactics and a generally demoralized and tired lot. cut them some slack. we need to be resting and refreshing right now. not whipping a dead donkey.
chivu should change the formation to 3-4-2-1. sommer
pavard – de vrij / acerbi – bastoni
dumfries / luis – calha / piotr – susic / aslani – carlos
fratesi / barella – zalewski / dimarco
lautaro / thuram
3-5-2 inter is slow and no creativity.
Chivu just started his first game and these morons are judging him lmao. anyway, asllani still needs to heavily learn how to defend, no doubt about his passing and free kicks/corners skill. lautaro and dimarco are getting fatter than everyone’s mom. barella needs to work on his finishing and shooting. it’ll take time. the new lads look promising except luis henrique, the right side needs more cover than early dumfries had if he started the game. you know what? inzaghi took this team to CL finals and he surely is one of greatest coaches inter ever had
Well said
100% agreed. Inter played worse in the last pre season even when they had more rest and training. This inter played good possession game with more attacking football. I don’t think we should judge just yet considering the fact that Chivu only had a week to coach and the players are tired.
100% correct, Chivu is a modern coach, I trust him.
acerbi is done. misss a lot of chances but we are fine. next no more acerbi,aslani,miki, darmian and sommer. we need more younger and hungry player.
we need a new captain.. the team problem is lautaro, what a shitty player, kick this loser from the team, he n, Miki, Darmian, asslani, hakan, Di Marco, taremi, arnatovic, Sommer must leave asap.. fkkkkc
Should have won this game in the first half. The overly conservative lineup kept them in it. Then, threw all subs on at once and created chaos.
Glad to see Chivu is at least willing to make some changes. Hope he can manage egos because some of these guys are starting to look a little too comfortable and entitled
imo, there are too many robotic players here, inza is gone then his system is gone, and so do the players who are used to his game plans. asllani is good, but seeing him play like seeing an upgrade AI robot that still learning on how to taste a breath in the fresh air. miki is good too, but he is like an old asllani with the help of experiences and fitness. di marco n bastoni, these iconic duos were fantastic during early months of last season, then they were playing like Iron Man who waiting to succumb to his wound. no hope. just waiting to his death. this becomes a total soulless team.
Lool this comment made me laugh but let’s be patient and see what happens in the next game
yeah ive been very frustrated since we lost against milan at coppa semis, it was like something was really not right. but yeah gotta make the frustration to be a laugh to myself.
dimarco is getting fatter, thuram should be sold, inter need forwards with skill and pace, lautaro and thuram don’t have that. sucic is no better than brozovic or even aslani. i hope chivu can see these weaknesses and fix them.
i would take a sucic that is as good as brozo.
For Inzaghi haters, no matter how you criticize Inzaghi, he is the one who lead this level of squad to a top competitive level in Euro. This game Barella Demarco still play like they were in the UCL final, not too much highlight from both of the new comers, only shinning point is the Esposito, the energy the confident. And it is really sad that we still need our 37 Acerbi and 35 Damian to play full time.
Lmao I hope I didn’t sound like some of these idiots on here in my criticism of Inzaghi. These guys are saying we will be in relegation zone after one match in a game where Inter should have won based on chances created. Guys relax lol
Welcome to Chivu Ball!
We can’t even beat a Mexican team lol. Like I said the management took the piss and destroyed our team by hiring someone who hasn’t even had HALF a season as a senior coach smh
By winter he’s gone and we won’t make top 4 next season, again I’m blaming management for this mess.
Now we are after Parma level players LOL
Bro u can’t be serious our plays were really good we just lacked finishing and to not believe after one disappointing result (not a disappointing performance) just makes no sense when he just joined!
Go to sleep plastic fan, give him a chance, we played much better footbal than Inzaghi entire season.
go to sleep bro.
You people are complaining about a game where the coach only came to the team, not even two weeks as a coach and you are here complaining, give Chivu some time
Those last 25 -30 mins was not it. Thuram looks like he’s still in the ucl final in his head. No motivation
You F**Cing draw against Monterry hahahahaha Screw this team the season is already over guys!! Its f**cking over!! Enjoy relegation !!!
Another blow to inter statistically. Javier Zanetti held the record for the oldest player to score in the World Cup for Clubs. Now Ramos holds the record after scoring against mediocre inter
You F**Cing draw against Monterry hahahahaha Screw this team the season is already over guys!! Its f**cking over!! Enjoy relegation !!!
What a sh*tty squad we have wtf is this against monterry hahahahahaha bunch of headless chicken cant even score 1 goal
Ramos outplayed the entire inter squad.
The match was between ONE (Ramos) vs 11 players of inter + staff LOL
They wanted to win the treble LOL and the fourth LOL
Game vs Plate would be really difficult.
chivu if you want the players to enjoy the games, replace the bad players who played bad, esp at psg final. their exhausted mentality is contagious, they at least need rest (or less minutes to play) to reset the mentality, not to play regularly, esp in this tight schedules.
100% agree with you. Chivu should try more fresh line up, with younger player who really want to show their spirit, not just sticking to Inzaghi’s first eleven
Next training session will be 3 hours of shooting
What a boring match, we still play like sh*t
They will accuse you of not being a fan. Inter will be in the relegation zone. They cannot even beat Monterray. Good thing they will exit this tournament early so the squad can get some rest
We literally play like a serie b team holy Sh*t. Chivu really need to change the formation and we need to get rid of the deadwood !!! This is alarming!! If other inter fans cant see this then i dont know what the f*ck the actually are.
Meanwhile B. Munich 10 – Aucland 0
PSG 4 At. Madrid 4-0
LOL
What a miss!!! but chance is there.
So far feel like Sucic makes more impact in 5minutes than Henrique in 15.
Gotta pass it quicker there barella
Asllani is on a yellow. Let’s get Sucic on now.
There you go, Sucic!!!
Lets see how Henrique plays.
Two subs before the 60th minute? That’s refreshing.
Our pressing is way more aggressive too. So far just missing more goals
Love the confidence by Esposito! Bright future!
Great free kick.
Monterrey is terrible. They are passing the ball straight back to us every time they touch it and then dropping back.
I still think we are missing the opportunity to be truly dominant in games like this. We have defensive redundancy and no creativity in the forward midfield and out wide. We should be peppering their goal and scoring for fun.
Not exactly playing with our best outside options so the play is understandable perhaps. DiMarco, Zalewski might help a bit out wide
I have literally no complaints this far, like none, I seriously can’t complain about anything lol. Man Chivu is a breath of fresh air and the football seems high energy and we are actually making a lot of central passes with intense pressing and very effective man to man marking. I can’t wait to see this team in Serie A. We are playing like one of Klopp’s teams with this high energy focus. I just hope we can keep this up because Inter aren’t young enough to play this type of football. We’re hunting the ball in packs which is something I have never seen Inter do.
Very early days, but what I’ve liked so far is that we seem to be moving the ball a lot quicker than recently, with a lot of one touch Football! Very well worked goal, which was nice to see, and Esposito- though he should have scored- has already done more than Taremi has all season!
Slightly disappointing that a 39 year old Ramos managed to out muscle both Acerbi and Bastoni for his goal, and Sommer didn’t cover himself in glory either, but let’s be honest, that was literally all they did… we’ve been completely dominant all half!
Let’s hope that Henrique and Sucic get half an hour at the very least, and DiMarco needs to get some minutes too, as we need to get his form and fitness back to where it should be…. Let’s go boys!!!
Yeah can’t disagree with anything you said. We are playing with immense character and look like actual protagonists in this game. Any negative comments are from persons who want to be negative for being negative sake. Regardless of the result, I think we have a lot of positive so far in this game. Inter aren’t young enough finally playing modern football.
Ok first half against a clearly inferior team. Ramos goal was a foul 100%. Inter will grind out another goal for sure and win easily. Monterrey cannot keep the ball. Encouraged by some of the balls over the top. That is not Inzaghi ball for sure.
Yea im with you on that. I am hoping that Inter can play entertaining fooball against big european teams. However I am surprised on how much Inters play style changed in few days with Chivu.
To be honest, the only new thing is the free kick set up. Inzaghi always like those beautiful attacks, but you have to realize that this is a Maxican team, not even Serie A level, and not mention the UCL teams. Wait for stronger team and let’s see if we can keep this level of the pass accuracy. You know sometimes it is just they dont have the ability to do it when face the strong teams, not they are not willing to do it.
Indeed, Monterrey is a team below the average level of Serie A. One can’t tell much just by beating them. The next team we face is even weaker.
Ngl, I like the way Inter is playing. More possesion with good passing here and there. Hope Inter can continue to play like this as they develope over the season.
I cant believe we’re actually making passes over the defense….so far I’m impressed with our play. I begged for this all last couple seasons
Beautiful set up for the free kick!!!! Well done!!!!!!
Clearly now Inter is really bad on the defending the fast counter attacks. Defense line really needs to be alerted.
Esposito got nervous when he was about to score his first season goal for Inter.
It’s looking good with lots of energy shown Esposito unlucky go inter
Esposito…
LOL
Ramos scored
I like this inter already passing and passing we need to keep this up and show another inter side, press and take chances? In chivu we trust
The other team is clearly inferior to us, so a win is a must and I believe the guys will easily achieve it.
While the line up may not be too exciting, how about we get behind our new coach, and see what he can bring! Crazy idea I know, but then I guess its easier for some people to slag off the team they supposedly support… and by some people, I Mean complete twats!!
I’m sure that Henrique and Sucic will get minutes tonight, and by the start of the season proper, we’ll hopefully have a few more new signings to go with them….
A new era begins…. FORZA INTER!!
Well said. I don’t understand how some “fans” decide to be negative all the time.
Forza Inter
Because they’re not really fans… they’re just dickhead keyboard warriors….. if you can’t block them, just ignore them….
I am loving this Inter. We are ultra attacking right now. It’s unbelievable, I never expected this from Chivu; this is insane!!! Absolutely beatiful.
so many little bright sunshine that we have here.
calling for doomsday when first match under chivu hasn’t even kick off.
facts, let’s support our coach and ragazzi.
well, best luck to Esposito! future star!! Hope Henrique and Sucic can get some play time.
hahahahaah inter will lose and of course everyone will attack me and call me names. Really? the manager has selected Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Matteo Darmian, Nicolo Barella, Kristjan Asllani, Henrikh Mkhitarya to play when they have already been tired??! He won’t last until November
Damn its a sad lineup I can tell you that much
What would your lineup be?
Sommer
Pavard De Vrij. Basto. Carlos
Susic Barella
Henrique Mki Zalewski
Lautaro
Sommer
Pavard De Vrij. Bastoni
Susic Barella
Henrique Frattesi Asslani Zalewski
Lautaro
Well I’m not exactly excited about that team selection. Same ‘safe’ choices like Darmian and Asllani….hopefully I eat my words but I feel like I’ve seen this all before.
I am glad Dimarco is on the bench. He’s been either lazy or exhausted and he and bastoni on the left is a defensive liability. Carlos at least has energy and effort.
I doubt there will be many comments so late at night. lol
Darmian, Miky, and fuc)ing Asslani playing for us