Atletico Madrid vs Inter Milan
The final match of ICC 2018 is set to be a cracker as both Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan are expected to play their big-name stars in preparation for the upcoming competitive football season.
Atletico haven’t had a good win yet in the tournament, but they will be determined to close it out in style as they look for a morale-boosting victory ahead of their meeting with Real Madrid in the battle of European Champions.
Meanwhile, Inter have been in fine form and recently beat Lyon in a low-scoring affair. However, with the Serie A nearing and the threat of the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Juventus looming, Luciano Spalletti and his men know what needs to be done to get them firing.
Talking Points
Atletico’s pre-season tour in Singapore has been far from ideal, no thanks to the absence of their top stars including Antoine Griezmann, Diego Costa, Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez. They won their opener against Arsenal but had to rely on the penalty shoot-out after settling for a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes.
They followed it up with a loss to Ligue 1 Champions Paris Saint-Germain. The Rojiblancos battled back from 0-2 down to make it 2-2 in the closing stages, but they conceded an injury-time goal and wasted what could have been one of the best ICC 2018 highlights.
This time, however, they will play the final match of the competition on their home turf—the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano. And besides the home-court advantage, they’ll be boosted by the likely return of their World Cup stars.
Godin and Gimenez, alongside Koke and Saul Niguez, featured for the club in their friendly against Cagliari and are likely to play again as Diego Simeone looks to get his players match-fit for the UEFA Super Cup.
Griezmann and fellow World Cup winner Lucas Hernandez have returned to training as well, joining Diego Costa to give Atletico a full-strength squad ahead of Sunday’s ICC clash with Inter Milan.
Inter Milan, meanwhile, haven’t really lost a 90-minute game of football in the tournament. They drew with Chelsea in their opener—before bowing down in the ensuing shoot-out—and beat Lyon behind a Lautaro Martinez 52nd-minute winner.
Like Simeone, Spalletti is also set to have his main men back. According to reports, Croatia stars Ivan Perisic and Marcelo Brozovic, Brazilian defender Joao Miranda and new signing Radja Nainggolan could feature for the Italian club in the match.
Mauro Icardi is expected to feature for the team as well, having played in the full match against Lyon last week.
The Nerazzurri recently acquired Sime Vrsaljko from—guess who—Atletico Madrid on a loan deal, and it would be interesting to see the Croatia standout return to Wanda Metropolitano quickly…though it remains to be seen if he’ll actually join the team in their trip just days after he left!
History
It has been eight years since these two football powerhouses met, and that was during the 2010 UEFA Super Cup. Atletico Madrid, just like this year, were the Europa League winners while Inter were fresh from beating Bayern Munich to take the Champions League trophy.
Interestingly, Atletico won that game 2-0 behind goals from Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Aguero.
Of course, both teams have different squads this time and Inter won’t think too much about their history. Nevertheless, they should be cautious of playing Atletico on their stomping ground.
The Madrid side, in fact, lost just once at home in the La Liga last season. They recorded a 17-game unbeaten streak at the Wanda Metropolitano in the 2017/18 campaign and only lost on May against Espanyol in a game that saw them rest Griezmann and Godin.
In contrast, Inter are relatively poor on the road, having won only nine out of 19 away games in the Italian top flight last year.
What are the odds?
As expected, the SBOBET ICC 2018 offers largely favour Atletico to win comfortably. The Madrid side is tipped with 1X2 odds that pay out at 2.15, with Inter way behind at 3.45 and the draw at 3.25.
In Asian Handicap betting, Atletico are at -0.25 @ 1.79. A bet on Inter with a +0.50 start isn’t also guaranteed to win, as shown by odds of 1.83.
The other Atletico Madrid-Inter Milan betting odds suggest that there will be at least two goals scored in the game. Over 2.25 is at 1.73 while Total Goal 2-3 pays at 1.82.
A Correct Score 2-1 for an Atletico Madrid win, meanwhile, gives a great payout at 7.60.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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