Inter Milan coach Cristian Chivu has decided to start Francesco Acerbi, Andy Diouf and Davide Frattesi in the first leg of the 2025/2026 Coppa Italia semi-final tie against Como.
The official lineups for tonight’s Coppa Italia semifinal leg 1 match, which kicks off at 21.00 CET in Bodo, have been published.
Inter eased past second-tier Venezia in their curtain-raising fixture before narrowly beating Torino in the previous round.
Therefore, the Nerazzurri continue their cup journey in the semi-finals against Como.
Furthermore, Cristian Chivu lost star strikers Lautaro Martinez and Ange-Yoan Bonny for this clash.
Therefore, the 45-year-old had to change his starting lineup tonight.
Como vs Inter Milan – Francesco Acerbi Returns to Starting XI
Although he came under heavy scrutiny in the aftermath of the Derby d’Italia, Alessandro Bastoni has a guaranteed starting berth.
However, that doesn’t apply to Manuel Akanji, who surrenders his place to veteran star Francesco Acerbi.
Indeed, the 38-year-old returns to the starting lineup in domestic action for the first time since mid-January.
Meanwhile, Yann Bisseck starts on the right side of Chivu’s traditional back three.
Therefore, Stefan de Vrij starts on the bench again.
Como vs Inter Milan – Davide Frattesi In Midfield & Andy Diouf In Attack
The main talking point comes on the left flank, where Carlos Augusto gets the nod ahead of in-form Federico Dimarco.
Despite his scintillating form, the Italian wingback desperately needs some rest amid a brutal fixture schedule.
Meanwhile, Matteo Darmian starts on the right wing at the expense of Luis Henrique.
Furthermore, Hakan Calhanoglu starts for the first time since Inter’s 2-2 home draw against Napoli in early January.
Elsewhere, Davide Frattesi starts in the middle of the park alongside Petar Sucic. Therefore, Nicolo Barella and Henrikh Mkhitaryan stay on the bench.
Finally, Andy Diouf and Francesco Pio Esposito lead the line, with Bonny and Lautaro sidelined with injuries.
Como vs Inter Milan – Official Starting Lineups: Acerbi & Frattesi Start
COMO (4-2-3-1): 1 Butez; 28 Smolčić, 14 Ramón, 34 D.Carlos, 3 Valle; 23 Perrone, 8 S.Roberto; 31 Vojvoda, 33 Da Cunha, 6 Caqueret; 10 Paz.
Bench:21 Törnqvist, 22 Vigorito, 44 Čavlina, 5 Goldaniga, 7 Morata, 11 Douvikas, 15 Lahdo, 17 Rodriguez, 18 Moreno, 19 Kühn, 20 Baturina, 38 Diao, 77 Van der Brempt.
Coach: Fabregas.
Suspended: none.
Unavailable: Addai, Morata.
INTER (3-5-1-1): 13 J. Martínez; 31 Bisseck, 15 Acerbi, 95 Bastoni; 36 Darmian, 16 Frattesi, 20 Calhanoglu, 8 Sucic, 30 Carlos Augusto; 17 Diouf; 94 Esposito.
Bench: 1 Sommer, 12 Di Gennaro, 2 Dumfries, 6 De Vrij, 7 Zielinski, 9 Thuram, 11 Luis Henrique, 22 Mkhitaryan, 23 Barella, 25 Akanji, 32 Dimarco, 53 Lavelli.
Coach: Chivu.
Suspended: none.
Unavailable: Lautaro, Bonny.
Referee: Di Bello.
Assistants: Peretti and Colarossi.
Fourth official: Zufferli.
VAR: Mazzoleni.
Assistant VAR: Maresca.
Maybe Inter will limp to the title this year but next year we are finished.
Chivu is not good enough and the team needs a full rebuild.
Such a horrible opinion
agreed with Microwave
We got ousted in a shamefull manner from UCL by a team nobody will remember it exists after this year.
We lost tens of millions.
Well, ugly game for sure. But to be honest, I think this should be our first game at Bodo. I am not saying Chivu is good or bad, but looks like he is getting some experience from the past. Sometimes team needs some ugly games for multiple leagues play. And ugly win would always be a bonus.
For those who want Inter to change their formation, just look at the results, even though the changes aren’t significant. But it’s great that Chivu is at least willing to experiment. This is why Chivu hasn’t dared to completely change what Inzaghi left behind, because it’s not easy to change what has been understood for years, and players need time to understand something new. Regardless, Inter’s squad contains players designed for the 352 formation. Changing to the 343 (wing play), 3412, 433, or 4231 seems to take time, and would require selling and buying the right players for the desired formation.
How is anyone asking for defenders after watching this game?? Our problem isn’t defense, it’s in ATTACK. We literally DO NOT have any players capable of beating their man and creating chances. I don’t want to see anymore defenders in this team and no more useless strikers! We need wingers and that’s it. No defenders ffs smh
Hopefully, we can change the system (and players) this summer. Inzaghi made it work (I know you didn’t like Inzaghi, but he made this team challenge for titles), but it’s clearly time to move on. The older players are less reliable and will probably be gone this summer. I’m not sure how much Oaktree will be willing to spend, though, which will make getting fast players with dribbling abilities very hard.
Im not realy with you on this one 🙂
I think we need defenders alot. Our defense had to many errors today. Thanks to Comos basic player in attack who culdnt score even 30 cm from open goal. Then we gave away the ball to easy. Specialy in first half.
But I agree we need a clinical player in attack. A player who know how to score. (Not in this game) But our attack cant realy score. We create alot of chanses, for nothing
Cause Inter Milan have Bastoni. Bastoni is the worse Italian defender ever in last 50 years.
Dont think so!
Last 3 years he have playd on top.
epl top clubs want Bastoni for 80 mln at least. What do you mean man 🙂
Inter Milan fans are blind. Look at how many goals conceded by Italy and Inter MIlan last 2 years. He was slow and beaten easily,. If he is real reliable defender, Italy or Inter Milan only use 2 center backs.If he goes to EPl, he will get humiliate by EPl opponents.Maybe, you never seen great defenders like Maldini,Baresi,Costacurter, Nesta, Cannavaro, Gentile, Sciera, Chiellini and Fererrer.He is the reason Germany and Norway thrash Italy.
Winn, it depends on the team, I see Bastoni doing similar to Gvardiol at City, I see him doing well at Arsenal, if he were next to Van dyke at his best he would do well. You’re being harsh, Italian national team on a whole has been poor.
fuck off braindead ape!
Inter decided that they would be happy to take this to San Siro, attacking football was hardly the intention. We have the highest scoring team in Serie A by miles, we are doing something right, but yes I agree, we need some more creative wing oriented players, they will be asked to play a balanced role and need to defend also, wingers will not be given free attacking license. The midfielders are similar, they play kind of box to box with a lot of deep lying play, they don’t give any midfielder creative freedom like in other teams also.
I had alot of hopes with this formation. But it was a epic fail. We had the ten first minutes than after that, nothing.
Now I start paranoing about the league. Can we manage? Or we just crash?
i hope chivu learns that this formation is not good for inter. if he’s afraid of player getting injured in the derby, it’s better to play primavera or u23 player. stick to 3-5-2.
Not a good game. It was like the first leg against Bodo. Game was garbage but we are going back to San Siro 0-0, don’t know if this is good or bad because the pressure to win will be insurmountable.
Zero shots on target. At least we didn’t lose.
Now we need at least a draw vs Milan. We should not leave much space behind, that’s how Milan beat us.
Milan lately struggle against weaker sides but in the derby its not about form but I feel this time Chivu will go all out and try to win the match
Inter this season was Dimarco + Lautaro. That’s all.
If I have to name some, prolly Bastoni, Zielinski, Bonny and Sommer approved, but were kinda irrelevant.
I know Como is good.. but we’re fkin Inter. We got humbled by Bodo because we’re playing terrible.
How weak must be Serie A if we are leading by 10 points at 2/3 of the season, ffs
0:0. For big rotation this is very good result. Clean sheet also. Hopefully at Meazza we play with stronger line-up and Lautaro will be back. Forza Inter.
True bro. I have no energy to stay here but lets wreck mulan. Forza Inter brothers. That was not a good game and yet we draw.
Yeah, probably thinking about Milan, but it is worrying that they played with 0 motivation tonight. Especially those players that are supposed to give it their all and use every starting chance they get, Sucic, Diouf, even Frattesi. Many were clamoring how he needs to get a chance to play, but whenever he did, he showed nothing.
That’s right, bro. Chivu’s decision to rotate was the right one. Besides, the Coppa Italia prize isn’t worth it if someone gets injured. So, the results are already very good.
only one team want to win in this game, and thats not inter
seriously? it looked like neither of the teams wanted to win
at least como player try to put the ball into the net
no they didn’t, Como barely pressed Inter, you knobhead.
In the second leg Inter will push for the win and maybe at that point Inter will have already secured the scudetto.
And what
I get we don’t want to risk a loss – but to see chivu actively clapping backwards / sideways passing is extremely worrying if that’s his idea of “football”
There is a lot of fear running through this squad.
“Bottle” is gonna be used far too much for my liking over the next few weeks I think.
All to play for 2nd leg, but you won’t win anything set up and performing like that
Hard to lose too if Como couldn’t score at least a goal with Inter playing like this, right?
Nah… only the derby is the most important match to win to secure the scudetto. He had to make big decisions and the fact that Dimarco will be rested while players like Hakan and Dumfries got some minutes means the derby is considered a must win match for Chivu.
Well if it wasn’t obvious enough Inter were 100% thinking of the derby.Lol I’m glad it’s 0-0 means Como might face a very different Inter
God this is pathetic, are we really just passing it around. i’m sorry but a team of inters caliber can not play like this. So embarrassing.
no it’s not. I call it smart. saving energy without losing. A big gamble but it worked. In a week nobody will remember how we play, only the result remains. Hope we can beat AC this time.
motm.. inter fans, who sat through this nonsense for 93mins!
I dunno if we had visiting fans this game. Though these rube/como been booing sandro the whole game. Narative – done. Fkrs
Ooh, so Pio is better than Sebastiano ooh wise one?
Are you referring to the Sebastiano who has scored 3 goals this season despite playing most games?
anyone else who thinks a 3-4-2-1 with our current lot is a good idea, please go back to sleep! pio has no clue what to do up front alone. fratessi and diouf scared of their own shadow, chala was roaming the bazaars of Turkey. btw did we have any WB? the only person, who i saw something off was martinez in goal. he needs to start regularly over sommer.
Chivu is looking for a draw or at least lost with one goal margin thinking that he can overturn it in the second leg, (Did he learn something from Bodo’s game)
Completely different. Bodo sat back and hit us on the counter on the return leg. Plus, Bodo won the first match by 2 goals… Como doesn’t play like that, as you can see. They like to have possession and control the tempo. I must add, we already beat Como when playing at the San Siro. We’re conserving energy for the Derby. Hopefully, Serie A would be decided by the time we have to play the return leg, and can go full force on that game.
honestly forgot frattesi was still on the pitch
don’t know why, this match feels like a pre season friendly!
Cause serie a is low quality
stfu.. no one invited you to watch serie a.. u are here because you want to be. go watch the farmer leagues if you prefer them this much.
EPl is shit and overrated. They just kick the ball and run faster.
Felt like we played one man down and Aslani playd on every position of the midfield
lol.. felt like we were not playing at all… felt like a Sunday league match to be honest. como too were not interested.
what happened with Thuram.
many said this is embarrassing. well i don’t think so. A big gamble by chivu maybe. But it was necessary. With some players out injured and some other just came back from injury, we successfully saving energy for weekend without losing.
lol this comment section is weird. why my comment is even appeared here.
Maybe we could do a smash and grab but a draw or a loss is probably more realstic for us as how bad we are playing
IF we could combine sucic ball control, Henrique pace and Diouf tenacity into one player we might just have a player worth 30m
Instead we have these 3
Cough cough
good run by sucic, need more of our midfielders to do that
I have never really seen our defense panick this much as in this game tbh maybe in the other big games but they seem to just be slipping up in their own pen area
Why this heavy rotation? I mean if you save yourself against Milan, even with strongest line-up we can’t win against Milan. I mean this season we drew against injured Napoli and we won you know why against Juventus. This is how you play with this rotation. I hope Como won’t win.
It does baffle the mind
Indeed, we are 10 points ahead of Milan. On the other hand, in the Coppa there is no points advantage. Doing heavy rotation here too risky.
Why get our starters tired before the Derby. If you think we can’t win against them with fully rested starters, what makes you think our tired starters or bench would win against Milan?
How does rotating this much doesn’t make sense to you? We can get away with a tie in this game and go full force on the return leg, while resting key players to put the Serie A race to a rest. Is this too hard to understand?
Nice we finished 0:0. Now big favorites at Meazza., I feared loss 0:2 with this rotation but Como was bad as Inter was.
Bisseck at RW playing no look passes giving the ball away – but yeah class player …….rolls eyes
should i be surprised frattesi just wasted a good opportunity? i dont get those subs either. why stick with 1 striker if theres not a second striker or wingers to back him up. doesn’t change that theres no service. horrible decision
Our players have no idea what to do with the ball, they can only do back/side pass and long ball. We are lucky como wasted their chances.
They were always gonna struggle with the tactic change – nobody knows what to do.
They’re far better organised than us
We are just watching it
Sorry not we they
how terrible our defense. biseck acebi lost concentration
Still we got clean sheet. 😛
Bastoni got beaten easily every games
frattesi is ineffective in the first half, too late to attack, and not defending. nothing on the left side. meanwhile on the right its too crowd. diouf, bisseck, darmian, and sucic.
I think you answer yourself there. Players look lost in the setup I can’t remember Inter lauching a single successful attack it’s all back to keeper and defender then Pio lose it then it’s back to Como. No direction at all and its not on Frattessi but the coach.
WORST FIRST HALF UNDER CHIVU. Como haven’t scored but deserved at least two goals. Chivu must change things because if he wants a draw then Inter will be lucky if they don’t concede 2 goals minimum
For our luck, we finished 0:0. Good clean sheet with Martinez and heavy rotation. 🙂
45 minutes and 1 shot and i don’t even remember that supposed shot. That is utterly pathetic and cant be defended. We need wingers so badly. i can’t watch this static, pass backward, useless midfield team much longer.
Probably saving themselves for the weekend game, but to play like this without any motivation, it baffles me.
No Dima, no chances. Absolute MVP this season.
We need changes asap
If Italy didn’t have so many mediocre teams and worthy opponents, Chivu wouldn’t even come close to winning the Serie A title. Those who think his work is good can continue to fool themselves. But the football on the pitch tells a different story. He practically didn’t win any big games, only against smaller teams.
we need 1 atleast 1 good cb next season. it’s very worrying
At least!!!!!
You are still asking for defenders after watching this team struggle to create chances or even beat their man, are you serious?!
Got better things to do. I’m out.
One of the worst halftimes this season for sure, midfield isn’t doing anything
This is heavy rotation. Worrying. I hope we don’t lose.
For me it’s less the rotation and more the system change – also the poor timing of the change as I’m sure it works if you have the ball and the changes he’s made and knowing how como play we were always gonna concede the majority of the ball today.
Very odd lineup
not that poor. Two forwards out injured, and upcoming big game on weekend. I guess we don’t have much choice with heavy rotation and system change.
The good thing is we did not lose. That’s what matters. I hope we play with strong line-up at our stadium.
we need zielinski in second half. sucic distribute the ball very poor
is this a joke. hakan has not completed one good pass, frattesi and diouf have no good runs in them and no passes. sucic the only midfielder i saw that actually dribbled once and is working defensively
Well at least Hakan is trying the risky passes to make something happen Susic/Fratessi/Diouf all literally hiding behind Como players with no movement. Hakan knows he doesn’t have 90 minutes so he’s trying to be effective while others might get 90 minutes
Chivu is a one-dimensional coach. Winning the Scudetto is nice, but it does not justify this silly rotation.
remember it’s he even not one season full in Parma. he still learning.
I am aware he needs time to learn some things, but this kind of rotation is too silly to justify.
lucky you don’t have to think about player’s fitness. Do you really think dimarco can play every single game? Do you know what will happen when you don’t rotate heavily? If you don’t, then look at Napoli, how many injury they got this season? Also it’s not like we have much choice.
Do you know what happens when you do such heavy rotation? You play like we played in the first half.
Yes, but we don’t have much choice. With big upcoming match on weekend, what are you gonna do? If we lose on weekend and more players injured, you will still complain anyway. We have tricky schedule and we can’t change that. So the way I see it, we have the privilege not to think about it and to freely criticize if things went wrong.
Chivu at least should not have played both Frattesi and Sucic.
I would prefer to win tonight and lose vs Milan. We are 10 points ahead of them, but in the Coppa there is no points advantage.
and who are you gonna play with? They’re the only players on the bench. Don’t expect everyone else to share same preference as you do. I prefer we go for a draw here and beat ac next.
Pio always falling down. It’s so annoying.
He can’t play… Sebastiano is better.. He’s better off a bouncer in night clubs..
What are you talking about? He is good. The only criticism I have for him is he needs to stay on his feet and stop diving all the time.
If Inter would’ve loaned him out, you’d be calling out the daftness as you always do.
Nah.. I am not blinded by preference for youth… We all have eyes to see that though he might score, he ruins lots of attacks, and a team LIKE INTER should have killer instincts, especially versus other big teams..
Then play with La Gumina instead. Being ignorant and irrational is your privilege.
Whatever man… No UCL in 16 years… At least I am being honest
And what does the UCL have to do with Pio Esposito?
You call saying sebastiano better than Pio is being honest? That’s being ignorant
Ooh, so Pio is better than Sebastiano ooh wise one?
at least arteta and conte share the same view as me about pio. You must be world class football coach aren’t you? at least a wanna be.
pip ur starting to annoy me with this constant falling. be a man.
I rightly noticed that a few weeks ago and was met with disapproval by some delusional and noncritical fans
Some fans here would never admit to the truth in the name of fanfare..
Tonight is a fine example of everything wrong with bisseck so far too.
Why is Bastoni always pointing backwards like what the hell.
Just stick frattesi up front and move back to 3,5,2 that everyone knows how to play, this is abysmal so far.. they are chasing shadows – nobody knows the system
Pio completely cutoff
hate bisseck playing too casually
Martinez says I want to be No.1 Goalie.
just another game where we have the ball and just do nothing with it. on a bright note good job josep
Have the ball?!! What are you watching?
the game…? everytime we have the ball we do nothing with it
Stop fannying about with it at the back, we never learn – we are not the Barcelona of early 2000’s
Just clear the damn ball up field if there’s nothing on
Como plays like Barca.
Questionable line up to start with but let’s see what happens.
I am not convinced by having both Frattesi and Sucic. This is risky IMO and might cost us the Coppa.
Also both Augusto and Darmian playing. I am not convinced; after the UCL blunder, throwing away the Coppa as well would be too much.
Pio in the tunnel looks completely confused about what the plan is… him and frattesi trying to work it out.
Come on boys!! We really need this! FORZA!!
Not sure I agree with the rotations but let’s wait and see
why not give some U23 players a chance since it is coppa? Just thought when they actually can start to adjust to the serie A without even playing coppa to feel it. But anyway, good luck!
I was on the same page, but i guess chivu want to keep the morale high and dont accept any slip. And that is why me and you are not coaches bro 🙂
I guess you won’t complain if the U23 being slaughtered by como out there. Too bad, our U23 are not as good as you might think. They can’t even dominate Serie C, let alone Como.
So….. we don’t want the double then
Lol why Acerbi tho. He can come in as a sub if Chivu really needs him to play and rest others for the derby.
i like that Diouf in attack.
Nice. Get to see andy in new role again. Dribble dribble..for sure 🙂