The Luigi Ferraris Stadium will hold the Serie A match between hosts Sampdoria against visitors Inter on Sunday 30th of October at 20:45 CET.
After finally registering a win against Torino midweek, Inter travel to Liguria to face Sampdoria. Frank DeBoer has been vocal about wanting to see compactness and discipline from his side and will hope that this match is a platform on which to relaunch the Nerazzurri bid for an unlikely top three season finish.
Sampdoria have been in pretty poor form lately, and only have their fortuitous derby match against Genoa as their one victory in the last eight games. While the Doria have a pretty bad defensive record, having let in fifteen goals in their last eight games, it is important to remember that they have managed to score in all but two of their league games for far, and that their tricky forward Luis Muriel can trouble any defence.
Team News
The only real question mark about team selection will probably be whether FdB decides to start with Ivan Perisic up front or continue playing Eder ahead of the Croat, especially bearing in mind that the Italy international will be extra motivated to perform against his former side.
Yuto Nagatomo will probably start in left back to use his speed against Samp’s speedy Muriel, while almost all other choices will probably be unsurprising.
Probable Inter line-up (subject to change): (4-3-3) Handanovic; Ansaldi, Miranda, Murillo, Nagatomo; Brozovic, Banega, Mario; Candreva, Perisic, Icardi (C).
Stats
Last Season: Sampdoria 1 – 1 Inter
Last 10 Head to Head: in their last ten league games, Sampdoria have managed to beat the Nerazzurri just twice.
Player to Watch:
Mauro Icardi: Whether it’s off the pitch antics or on the pitch heroics, it’s difficult to call out an Inter player to watch this season that isn’t Maurito. The Inter captain rescued all three points against Torino with a stunning late goal and will be more than eager to get back to scoring ways against his former employers.
Officials
Referee: Paolo Mazzoleni Assistants: Alfonso Marrazzo, Giorgio Peretti Fourth Official: Giacomo Paganessi Additional Assistants: Marco Guida, Maurizio Mariani
Prediction & Authors Note
Prediction & scorers: Sampdoria 1 – 2 Inter with Eder and Icardi finding the back of the net against their former team.
Author’s Note: Inter have neither kept a single clean sheet so far this season nor have they broken the deadlock once, while Empoli have struggled to find the back of the net. Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see if De Boer can finally break the former two statistics or whether Empoli will continue Inter’s imperfect defensive record.
Words: Mohamed Nassar – Follow him @MNassar
