Inter Milan coach Cristian Chivu has decided to start Hakan Calhanoglu against Udinese. This evening’s Serie A matchday two clash kicks off at 20.45 CET.
Inter Milan take on Udinese this evening in Serie A.
The Nerazzurri got their season off to a roaring start last weekend, thrashing Torino 5-0.
Meanwhile, Udinese got a 1-1 draw against Hellas Verona on opening weekend.
La formazione dei nostri ⚫🔵
Così in campo in #InterUdinese ⚽#ForzaInter |@play_eFootball pic.twitter.com/SgdQuWvRkL— Inter ⭐⭐ (@Inter) August 31, 2025
Now, Cristian Chivu will take charge of his second Serie A match as Inter coach.
The pressure is on the Nerazzurri to follow up their emphatic win over Torino with three more points this evening, after Roma and Napoli made it two wins from two yesterday.
Chivu Sticks With The 3-5-2 Once Again
Notably, Inter coach Chivu is once again employing the 3-5-2 formation for this evening’s match.
Firstly, Yann Sommer starts in goal, keeping his place from the win over Torino.
Then, it is a back three of Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi, and Yann Bisseck.
Meanwhile, wingbacks Federico Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries also keep their places.
Hakan Calhanoglu Starts – Petar Sucic Keeps His Place
Next, in midfield Chivu has made one change.
Hakan Calhanoglu had missed Monday’s win as he was serving a one-match suspension. However, the Turkish international is available this evening.
Chivu has decided to put Calhanoglu straight into the lineup for his first start of the season.
Meanwhile, summer signing Petar Sucic keeps his place in the eleven. Furthermore, Nicolo Barella also starts once again.
Therefore, Henrikh Mkhitaryan drops to the bench.
Lastly, in attack Chivu has once again gone with the starting strike partnership of Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.
Among the substitutes on the Inter bench there is one particularly notable name. 20-year-old striker Francesco Pio Esposito was suspended for the opening match against Torino like Calhanoglu.
However, Pio Esposito is available this evening. Therefore, the Inter academy graduate could make his Serie A debut.
Meanwhile, summer signings like Luis Henrique, Ange-Yoan Bonny, and Andy Diouf are all also available on the bench.
Official – Inter Milan Vs Udinese Starting Lineups: Hakan Calhanoglu Starts
Inter Milan (3-5-2): Yann Sommer; Yann Bisseck, Francesco Acerbi, Alessadnro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu, Petar Sucic, Federico Dimarco; Marcus Thuram, Lautaro Martinez.
Substitutes: Josep Martinez, Raffaele Di Gennaro, Stefan de Vrij, Benjamin Pavard, Tomas Palacios, Matteo Darmian, Carlos Augusto, Luis Henrique, Piotr Zielinski, Andy Diouf, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Davide Frattesi, Ange-Yoan Bonny, Francesco Pio Esposito.
Coach: Cristian Chivu.
Suspended: no one.
Injured and unavailable: no one.
Udinese (3-5-2): Sava; Bertola, Kristensen, Solet; Ehizibue, Piotrowski, Karlstrom, Atta, Zemura; Bayo, Davis.
Substitutes: Nunziante, Goglichidze, Kabasele, Kamara, Zarraga, Lovric, Pjianic, Miller, Camara, Ekkelenkamp, Rui Modesto, Vinciati, Buksa, Bravo.
Coach: Runjaic.
Suspended: Okoye (Until October 18th).
Injured and unavailable: Padelli, Palma.
Referee: Marchetti.
Assistant referees: Baccini and Colarossi.
Fourth official: Zufferli.
VAR: Marini.
Assistant VAR: Aureliano.
God bless you Guzo you’ve said my mind some of our fans are enemy to this club always praising clappy player as you said you can’t do this at Real Madrid or Barcelona.
Thank you bro.
Its gonna be a long season. My bet as last year i predicted in October Napoli will win it. This year they are even stronger. But i knew it would be too good to be true. Chivu will learn this season how to manage a big team, so i didnt even expect a scudetto battle. If we finish top 4 with other teams like juve, milan, roma, bologna etc we can say thats the most realistic achievement. I like Chivu, he has balls which Inzaghi lacked. Hopefully he will learn, and learn fast to turn around the performance. Thats just the reality, we dont have a creative playmaker like prime Sneijder or a wall CB like Solet. Even Conte will lose points, but at least he doesnt lose much. We cannot compare ourselves with a Napoli strong like this. Top 4 would a success, cuz this is our top from this squad and coach. More we cannot achieve.
Wait till UCL starts and Napoli plays three games a week. will show u what conte is made off.. that being said.. yes they have a strong team, we have heart! our management missed a trick, we should have gone for openda instead of wasting time on lookman.
Doesnt matter, everyone knows Conte is shit in Europe, however, he is maybe one of the best coaches there ever was in winning leagues constantly. Chelsea, juve, Inter, Napoli, wherever he was he dominated the leagues besides Tottenham. If he won last year with a weaker squad due to Inzaghis giveaway, imagine what he will do this season. 10 points ahead with ease i expect
Conte ain’t dominating anything bro. Napoli have a good squad but by no means they’re peak Rube squad. Football is a game of moments and it doesn’t just always work as expected.
I will be hoping for a scudetto until it is mathematically gone – let’s cheer our team to push and fight until the final whistle! However, a 4th place or better wouldn’t be a failure.
I mean, football has seen bigger miracles than one of the scudetto favorites actually winning a scudetto – like today, Udinese actually beat a great team.
Maybe we should have bought the matchwinner from Udinese instead of Solet…
Agree, we started a new era and i fully back Christian and the boys. Lets see what we can do, as you say even top 4 finish would be good for this season. Everything more of that would be a successfull season i guess. Even Guardiola, Xabi, Conte, Inzaghi, Maresca, Flick, Ancelotti, Enrique cannot win everything. Every league has its tough opponents. Forza Inter as always.
Key point is teams will drop points. Serie a doesn’t have a peak Man City to go on win 10 =15 matches in a row. Its matchday 2 and Inter do play attacking pressing football which has it’s upside and vice versa. I still believe modern football is mostly about attacking so sooner or later highly defensive teams will start to struggle to win matches. One thing is clear tho Bisseck should be sold when because just like last season he’s a liability its so hard to count on him
how on earth can Marotta see this game and be like yup we don’t need more signing we’re all good after such a disastrous performance from certain individuals
because the goal is to be in top4, to qualify for CL. He doesn’t expect much from Chivu
we are missing a good young central defender which should have been our priority along with a young goalkeeper who can challenge Sommer. but we wasted our time on Lookman and ruined our chance to plug those holes. saying anything about chivu so early would be stupidity. don’t think Inter will challenge for trophy this season ahead of Napoli and Rube. realistically we should finish 3rd
Udinese survived 13 corners from Inter like that have to be a record. It’s important for Chivu not to panic because it was the right response and out of all the teams Inter have the depth so no need to rush things. The players are clearly behind him. Football is a game of moments and Udinese had their moments.
pathetic fans
I’m going to tell you guys a realistic scenario, it’s up to you to live in reality or be delusional.
We got a coach who has only coached for less than half a year at the top, zero experience in managing big players; meeting expectations or winning titles.
We bought extremely average players this season, although only one player (Sucic) have potential.
We still have a bunch of oldies who frequently play:
acerbi, sommer, mhiky, darmian.
This season we will be lucky to come top 4 but realistically, I don’t see us coming top 4 and Chivu will be sacked before the season is over.
In club World Cup, we drew a Mexican team, we barely beat a korean team and we only won when River got a red card in second half. We got humbled by a Brazilian team after: these should have been easy wins.
I hope I’m wrong of course and we come top 4 but what I’ve seen so far has made me come to this conclusion.
Well I’m going to tell you something. I have complete faith in Chivu and know we will achieve the objectives management set out for him. I know the situation looks dire but once you see what Chivu is capable of you’ll eat those words, I promise you. Today we lost because of a bad penalty call and Biseck’s incompetence
It was a clear penalty. Dumfries’s hand helped keep the ball away from the Udinese player. He should not have opened the arms so much. We threw the Scudetto away last season this way and here we are doing it again.
the only way that Dumfries could not have not touched the ball if he was born without hands. that header came to him from less than a foot away. his hand was in a completely natural position for a jump, unless u expected him just to let the forward go unchallenged. that being said, if this is the standard VAR set, we should also get a penalty if something like that happens to us in d future.
Seeing that we share the same “read” of the incident… But if we did get a penalty this way and scoring from it, it would still feel weird. One would expect surrealistic, non undeserved goals from FC25, not refs making the game surrealistic.
Don’t hold your breath inter won’t get a similar penalty. But it’s clear this Inter will press and attack constantly which is how modern football is currently being played meaning defenders MUST be 100% otherwise it’s a penalty or red card that’s why I so far support Chivu approach. If the Dimarco goal stands Inter wins but even when it was clear the goal wasn’t going to happen for Inter Chivu sent a message by using all 4 strikers even tho Hakan and Barella can break opponents down.
Well said.
Appart from the game, what pisses me off about this site is as soon as someone start pointing out the obvious problems and crappy players in our team, he is imediately being labeled as a plastic fan.
I came across many Barca, Real, Bayern supporters who don’t tolerate bad players, bad managers and they keep roasting them untill they leave, and they actually leave asap because they can’t stand the abuse from the fans.
This website look like a base for the delusional people who can’t accept the reality and as long as you keep writting fairytales and unrealistic optimistic crap you are being cool, but the moment you start complaining about constant bad performance of some individuals you instantly become a fake fan, troll etc…
Well said.
Thank you my friend.
What constant bad performance? It is only the second game of the season.
Club World Cup, that performance. And constant bad performance by Biseck for example. Management’s incompetence to replace players who have nothing to offer. Do you want me to keep on?
I suppose you just woke up from a coma after 15 years.
Constructive criticism is one thing, but I have an issue with dickheads calling for Chivus head after 2 games- one of which he won 5-0- and claiming that we’ll be in a relegation battle…. some people on here aren’t fans, they are just pathetic keyboard warriors looking for attention…..
I know bro. You point out the issues in a diplomatic and polite manner, and you know how to remain calm when things gets bad, but I am a different personality and when I watch Inter my entire neighborhood know that Inter is playing and that I am watching.
I don’t think that sacking Chivu would change anything. Right now, we need stability and we won’t achieve that if we keep changing coaches too frequently.
What I mostly complain about is our management. And they failed to strenghten the team. And once again they wasted money on some nobodys instead of buying at least one good player even if it means spending 80mil. I’d rather spend big cash on one good player who can be reliable rather than splashing money on 3 or 4 flops that will become a burden in a future.
I knew Chivu has the balls to switch gears, but our biggest problem is too apparent and I have been vocal enough about the importance of having holding midfielder and pacey defender moreso than attacking player, we must stop that oncoming train, we conceded goals like that against Milan PSG Fluimenense Monaco, in games like this it’s always about not conceding goals, because we always have the ability to dictate the game and score, but the moment we conceded they will clamp down and that’s it
It was a clear penalty. Dumfries’ hand helped keep the ball away from the Udinese player.
This is just a loss and we should not jump the gun, but Torino’s destruction 5:0 was a fluke.
I primarily blame Chivu. His tactics leave a lot of space for counterattacks. As I noted after the game with Torino, the defense looked shaky and we left a lot of space behind. Chivu’s lack of experience will likely throw the season away. Plus we needed a quality CB and a strong, energetic midfielder. I mean a quality one, not Diouf. Hakan, Mikhi and Zielinski are on fast decline and bench options at most.
Bad result but we move on. We need a fast midfielder who has good close ball control, our build up play was really poor today nevermind who we had upfront. Reminded me of the 90s when we had Vieri, Ronaldo, Recoba upfront but not enough quality in midfield. I’m not saying our strikers are that good. We really needed a quality midfielder like Kone. Really disappointed we couldn’t get him.
Kone is not a quality midfielder and if anything we needed wingers who can take on their man
Credit to Udinese- Solet and Co. were all on beast mode! In reality they had 2 shots and 2 goals, and we couldn’t break them down…. Thuram was disappointing today, back to over-complicating things… Hakan was more than a little rusty, to put it nicely… The main worry when teams put everyone behind the ball is the same as last season- a lack of creativity in midfield… really think we should have kept Carboni for this reason… As per so often, our main creative outlet was DiMarco… I don’t think he looked tired in the slightest, and should have stayed on…. strange decision to drop Pavard, that didn’t pay off, but Chivu will learn from this- he’s a rookie coach, and we need to show patience… As always, Forza Inter…..