Champions League hunting Inter Milan face standard setting Lazio

Inter Milan host Lazio on Sunday evening at the San Siro Stadium with the teams having a massie two months ahead with it being a tight contest in the league and th teams both wanting to get a place in Europe in either the Champions or Europa League.

Inter Milan played fantastically well in their last match against their Milan rival AC Milan. Inter stormed into an early lead as Matias Vecino scored in the third minute giving the Nerazzurri a start they were looking for. It was 2-0 in the 51st minute a Stephen de Vrij goal doubled the lead for Inter but, AC Milan struck back six minutes later through a goal scored by Tiemoué Bakayoko. A penalty that was scored in the 67th minute by Lautaro Martínez gave Inter a two goal lead yet again. Mateo Musacchio scored in the 71st minute to decrease the deficit to one goal but Inter won the game 3-2 and giving them a huge boost into the next game. Inter boss Luciano Spalletti, spoke on Lazio’s season and Mauro Icardi’s problem. He said:

“Again this year, Lazio have had an excellent season like in past years. Simone Inzaghi makes the team play well. They’re three big points and it’s up against a direct rival.

“Mauro Icardi? In some ways, I’ve found him to be like a new player, he wasn’t with us for a long time.

“I still hold that he can’t be in condition now to help his teammates so he’s not in the squad for tomorrow.”

Lazio also go into this game after a win last time out against Parma. The Biancocelesti stormed into a 4-0 lead just before half-time, goals from Adam Marusic in the 22nd minute, a fantastic brace from Luis Alberto and a goal from Senad Lulic confirmed that Lazio will get three points. Parma scored a consolation goal in the 77th minute through Mattia Sprocrati but, it was simply not enough to inspire the team to a late comeback. Lazio manager Simone Inzaghi, expand on his teams phenomeal perfomances and to keep the consistency of the performances till the last game of the season. He said:

“The match will be very important for the classification and for the performance. We come from an excellent moment, we have nine other games to play but it will be very important tomorrow.

“Certainly we will need one of the best Lazio performances, we must give consistency to the last performances: in the Coppa Italia we did well, but we must not forget the bad game of the first leg, there was a break but tomorrow we will have to play a great game against a great team in a big stadium.”

“We have five teams in front of Lazio, they were built to achieve great goals: we played on par, we had some problems in the direct matches but now it’s better.

“The others teams, perhaps, on paper are better built.”

Last time the two battled against each other was in the league in late October, the game being played at Lazio’s Stadio Olympico. Mauro Icardi opened the scoring in the game. The Argentine found the net in the 28th minute with Inter scoring again just before half-time through a great goal scored by Marcelo Brozovic. Icardi secured the three points for Inter in the 70th minute and completed a fantastic brace.

Team News

Mauro Icardi still is out after misunderstandings with the club. Fellow striker Lautaro Martinez ​will miss Sunday’s match with a thigh injury. Midfielder Radja Nainggolan may return in this fixture following three weeks out with a calf injury but is a still questionable. Stefan de Vrij after ​picking up a thigh injury in training during international duty with the Netherlands. Defender Sime Vrsaljko is a long-term absentee, having been ruled out for the rest of the season following knee surgery.

Lazio will likely be without Stefan Radu due to a sprained ankle and will also be without Jordan Lukaku who is out for the rest of the season following knee surgery.