Two returns from the first minute and a new spirit, the high-ranking one, to defeat the rossoblù bête noire. This is how the Nerazzurri coach prepares for Sunday’s match
First the exam, then the lesson. But now it’s time for a new appeal that will tell if Inter has studied… Italian. Sixteen days after Riad, at San Siro, Chivu and his team will find themselves facing Bologna and in just over two weeks it could be a completely different match, especially as regards the epilogue. In the Super Cup semi-final the Nerazzurri student was faced with a series of final questions, in the championship he will only have ninety minutes to score his fifth consecutive victory in Serie A – it would be the first time this season – without any more blue pencil errors. The rubber at the opposite end will not be able to erase the more or less recent slips (in the last 10 previous games only 2 victories and several disappointments from the 2-1 with Radu’s own goal to Orsolini’s overhead kick last year and the 2-2 also last year, in addition to the knockout in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup in 2023) but compared to the latest test, Inter will be able to return to sit at the bench with a few more notions.
WHAT WILL CHANGE
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That something extra responds first and foremost to the name of Lautaro Martinez. Left on the bench at the start in Riyadh, and only coming on in the 71st minute, he will resume his place up front from the start on Sunday. With a goal he would score for the fifth game in a row in the league and would also reach double figures for the seventh different season in Serie A, overtaking Vieri and Boninsegna (for both of them six years with at least ten goals), and only Giuseppe Meazza and Benito Lorenzi (with nine) and Alessandro Altobelli (eight) would remain ahead of him in this special ranking. And if the Bull will be Chivu’s first different move for the second act of the season against Bologna, the second is another return. Calhanoglu – out in the Super Cup after recovering from an adductor injury – will also find space in midfield. Against Atalanta he remained on the pitch for all 90 minutes, played 75 balls, made 52 positive passes and created 3 chances. In short, the Turk is back. But in addition to the certainties on the pitch there will be the lessons of the latest outings against the beast… rossoblù. And there ‘move’ in this case it won’t be tactics but of the head, of spirit. The impulse of high-ranking motivation, the one at the top of the class followed by those who expect nothing more than a misstep. With the top three teams on three points, the table can change again after the next 90 minutes. Inter, two games away from the halfway point, just can’t afford it.