Inter Milan v Lazio – San Siro Stadium – December 30
Inter Milan having just come out of a humiliating home loss to Serie A minions Sassuolo at the San Siro stadium on Saturday now prepare to host a much tougher Lazio on December 30. Lazio on the other hand, will be feeling high after their 4-0 drubbing of releagation candidate Crotone.
Other than that, defenders Joao Cancelo, Milan Skriniar, Miranda and Daniel D’Ambrosio didn’t help matters at the back for Inter as they capitulated to the vicious counter-attacks in their shock 0-1 defeat to unfancied 14th placed Sassuolo. The Inter-Milan defence has normally been solid and have conceded the least number of goals after Roma in the 2017-18 Serie A season. But the Nerazzurri will need goals dearly from the likes of Mauro Icardi (their top scorer with 17 goals) and Ivan Perisic (7 goals) against Lazio if they need to break the run of three winless matches.
For Lazio Jordan Lukaku, Ciro Immobile, Senad Lulic and Felipe Anderson all returned with goals in the rout of Crotone. But they cannot take comfort from that. Minions Crotone have won in just three of their 18 Serie A outings and were thus easy meat for the Biancocelesti. Lazio will be banking on the scoring abilities of Ciro Immobile (18 goals this season) to shake up the dour Inter defence. The back line trio of Patric, De Vrij, Wallace haven’t been very effective and are prone to letting in goals (22 so far in the Serie A season). But lead by the live-wire Immobile, Lazio have a penchant for goals, the high tally of 43 which is only next to Juventus’s 45 being a testimony to that. This despite Lazio being in the 5th spot and 2 places behind Inter-Milan.
Lazio’s form in the last five Serie A encounters has been patchy, winning just one of those fixtures and losing two, one to 4th placed Roma and the other disappointingly to 10th placed Torino.
As far as the history of clashes between these two go, Lazio have won 3 of the 5 encounters against Inter Milan since 2015, their last trip to the San Siro being a 1-2 win in a Coppa Italia clash in January this year. It will be an evenly poised game at the San Siro with bookmakers giving the hosts the edge. Lazio, though, with an attack led by someone like Immobile could well turn the tables on a somewhat shaky Inter. Lazio have the chance of breaking into the Top Four if they win on Saturday, while Inter are likely safely ensconed in that space in the 3rd or 4th spot even if they were to lose.
Lazio to Win, Best Odds 9/4 @ betvictor