Serie A: Red Hot Roma are Coming for Inter

Inter Milan vs AS Roma

League leaders Inter Milan face a big test on Sunday when seventh-placed Roma visit the San Siro Stadium in one of the top clashes of the weekend.

Napoli host second-placed Milan, while third-placed Juventus host Hellas Verona on Saturday, and Serie A: Inter Milan vs Roma makes up the box-office trio of fixtures in the Italian football world. To add to the spice, Roma head coach Jose Mourinho is going back to the club he led to two Serie A titles and a Champions League triumph back in 2010. The serial trophy collector has already picked up some silverware at Roma, winning the Europa Conference League in 2022.

Both teams come into the game in fine form, Inter winning 3-0 away to Torino last week, before beating Salzburg in the Champions League, while Roma beat Monza 1-0 and then won a midweek Europa League clash against Slavia Prague.    

Talking Points

Martinez is becoming unstoppable  

Simon Inzaghi’s Inter are the favourites to win the 2024 Scudetto, now at SBOTOP odds of 2.10, with AC Milan at 3.70, Juventus at 4.50 and Napoli making up the leading pack at 8.00. And one of the biggest factors which make I Nerazzurri the team to beat is the form of their Argentine hit man Lautaro Martinez. With 11 goals from nine league games Inter’s star striker has been in prolific form, and he leads the race for the Golden Boot by five clear goals. Martinez bagged his 11^th in the 3-0 win over Torino and, on Sunday, he will be desperate to grab his 12^th when he comes up against his old strike partner Romelu Lukaku.

With supply coming from Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Martinez is devilishly hard to keep quiet and no-one has really managed it so far this season. And on the rare occasion he doesn’t get on the score sheet, as he didn’t against Salzburg, other players find the space to exploit, on this occasion Calhanoglu and Alexis Sanchez breaching the Austrian defence.

Inzaghi rested a few players for the European clash and Nicolo Barella, Marcus Thuram and Federico Dimarco could all be set to return.              

Lukaku can expect a hot reception

While I Nerazzurri fans still revere Mourinho as the man who brought them domestic and European success, the news coming out of Milan suggests that their former striker Romelu Lukaku may not receive the warmest of welcomes. The Belgian striker moved to Roma at the start of this campaign and Mourinho has been careful to look after his player who he worked with previously at Manchester United. And both player and manager are aware that the Inter Ultras are preparing a deafening racket for Lukaku, who they think, for some reason, betrayed their club when he went to Rome. They plan to hand out 50,000 whistles for fans to blast and Mourinho has expressed his surprise, saying: “I’m shocked by the whole thing because I didn’t think Romelu meant that much to a club with Inter’s history. Winning the Scudetto and a couple of cups has been done by 200 players in Inter’s history.” 

Jose’s always been a master with words!

Back to the football, with Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham both injured, Lukaku is set to start alongside veteran striker Andrea Belotti. Lukaku was on target in Roma’s clash against Slavia Prague, which was a battle for supremacy in Europa League Group G, so he will arrive in Milan full of confidence. And he will be well aware that fans and pundits will be keen to see how Lukaku measures up against Martinez.   

History

The head-to-head Inter Milan vs Roma results have thrown up some epic clashes over the years. I Nerazzurri are leading by 33 wins to 21; but both meetings ended in an away win last year, Roma winning 1-0 at the San Siro before Inter triumphed 2-0 in Rome.

Both clubs are in good form. Inter are unbeaten in five while I Giallorossi are on a five match winning streak.    

Betting Tip

At 4.55 to win or 3.54 to draw Mourinho has a stiff test ahead of him and his ex-employers are priced at 1.60 to take all three points. But while the Inter Milan vs Roma betting odds don’t hold out much hope for the visitors, the Roma boss is a tactical master of the big games and he would dearly love to remind the Nerazzurri fans just why they loved him. 

Five of Inter’s last six games have yielded three goals or over, while three of Roma’s recent fixtures are in that category, and I’m hoping for a goal rush from the in-form strikers.

 

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