Serie A Preview: Lazio - Inter

Thanks to an impressive winning streak in Serie A, which included victories against Juventus, Napoli, Udinese, and Palermo, Jose Mourinho’s Inter have built up a healthy six-point lead on top of the table. While it’s too early in the season to say that their closest followers, eternal rivals Juventus and Milan, are already cut out of the Scudetto race, Inter are looking very hard to top when it comes to Serie A at the moment.

They are in every way the antithesis of their city rivals Milan, who seem simply unable to conjure up the same motivation and concentration for every match week in week out, which is an essential quality to triumph in a long league season. It is their recent missteps against the likes of Lecce, Torino, and Palermo, all teams the Nerazzurri have managed to beat this season, that have allowed Inter to seemingly run away towards a fourth consecutive Scudetto.

On the other hand, Inter still seemingly have a lot to learn when it comes to the Champions League, which is much more suited to a team like Milan, who need to play against big name opposition to find the right motivation. It’s no coincidence that they are the only side who have beaten Inter so far in Serie A. Mourinho’s European pedigree was a major reason why he was brought to the club by president Massimo Moratti, who is desperate to achieve some success in the Champions League, but so far the Beneamata have really struggled despite finding themselves in the easiest group of the competition. The low point came with last week’s 1-0 home defeat to Panathinaikos, which came just days after they had beaten Juventus 1-0.

It seems there is a clear difference in mentality between the way Inter approach games in Serie A and in Europe. They showed that just days after the Panathinaikos defeat by beating Napoli 2-1 at San Siro with a highly convincing first-half performance. In Italy, Inter are aggressive and look confident that they are the team to beat. In Europe, they have a mental block, which is the only way to explain their struggles against teams who would probably be somewhere midway down the Serie A table if they were Italian.

Still, their domestic success is not something to be snubbed, especially considering that if they win the title again this season, they will have the same amount of Scudetti as Milan with 17. Considering that pretty football is a rare occurrence in Serie A games, Inter’s physical strength and ability to stay concentrated for 90 minutes makes them a fiercely competitive team for the league. Their win last week against Napoli was typical of their season so far: an aggressive start, in which they managed to score twice, then a moment of relaxation during which Napoli grabbed a goal back, and after that they sat back for the remainder of the game. And there is no team better at holding on to a lead than Inter at the moment.

It’s interesting to note, however, that Inter have only once won a game after going a goal down, against Catania on the second matchday. In all their other won games, things went more smoothly as they took the lead first, and either sat back to defend it, as they have often done in home games (which they’ve never won by more than one goal), or expanded it, which they frequently managed to do in away games. This is to point out that Inter’s resilience has not been tested to the fullest yet, although they did show against Udinese and Reggina that they are able to keep looking for the result they need right until the final whistle.

The match against Lazio definitely has the potential to be a tricky one for Inter, and it would be interesting to see how they will react if they go a goal down, also considering they have such a big lead on top of the table now.

For some reason, Lazio have always been a difficult obstacle for Inter to overcome. Although there is a good relationship between the two sets of fans, it certainly can’t be said that the Biancocelesti have done Inter any favours in recent years. The Nerazzurri only recently ended a long winless streak against Lazio, which dated back to the mid-90s.

Of course, the most infamous example of this was the final match of the 2001/2002 season, when Inter threw away what could have been their 14th league title by losing 4-2 away to Lazio, gifting the Scudetto to arch-rivals Juventus. The Nerazzurri never looked like a club doomed to failure more than that day, but all that is a distant memory now.

In the early 2000s, Lazio were a much wealthier club and they were used to challenging for the title, even going all the way in the 1999/2000 season. However, since then they have had serious financial problems, and have had to settle for a more modest role in Serie A.

They started the current season very well, and sat high in the table for a long period of time, but lately they have started to struggle, although they are still in a respectable 6th position with 23 points. They are also one of those teams who perform much better at home than away, having lost just once at the Stadio Olimpico, but four times on their travels.

They managed to change that trend somewhat in their midweek Coppa Italia tie at San Siro against Milan. After a tight and exciting game, the Rossoneri broke the deadlock in the 77th minute with a fine Andriy Shevchenko strike, but Mauro Zarate equalised from the penalty spot three minutes before full time. Since it was a direct elimination match, it went into overtime and Lazio needed just a minute to find a winner, as Goran Pandev slotted home the winner from close range in the first minute of extra time.

This will undoubtedly have given them a considerable morale boost ahead of this match against Inter, and they were also going through a poor run of results in Serie A following their unlucky derby defeat to Roma a few weeks back.

With fourth-placed Napoli just one point ahead in the standings, it looks like Lazio will be able to challenge for a Champions League spot again, and anything less than a Uefa Cup spot will be seen as a huge disappointment considering how the season started out for them.

03/12 (Coppa Italia eighth finals): Milan-Lazio 1-2 a.e.t.

30/11 (Serie A): Atalanta-Lazio 2-0

23/11 (Serie A): Lazio-Genoa 1-1

16/11 (Serie A): Roma-Lazio 1-0

09/11 (Serie A): Lazio-Siena 3-0

30/11 (Serie A): Inter-Napoli 2-1

26/11 (Champions League): Inter-Panathinaikos 0-1

22/11 (Serie A): Inter-Juventus 1-0

15/11 (Serie A): Palermo-Inter 0-2

09/11 (Serie A): Inter-Udinese 1-0

Full back Stefan Lichtsteiner is in doubt after hurting his right ankle during training, while midfielders Simone Del Nero, Marco Firmani, and Matuzalem are still recovering from injuries, as is defender Sebastiano Siviglia.

Possible formation (4-3-3): Carrizo; De Silvestri, Cribari, Rozenhal, Radu; Dabo, Ledesma, Brocchi; Mauri, Rocchi, Zarate.

Defender Nelson Rivas and Patrick Vieira are out injured for this one. Christian Chivu is available again following the knee injury he sustained against Reggina.

Possible formation (4-3-1-2): Julio Cesar; Maicon, Cordoba, Samuel, Maxwell; Zanetti, Cambiasso, Muntari; Stankovic; Ibrahimovic, Adriano.

The 21-year-old Argentinean striker is one of the surprises of the Serie A season. With seven goals scored so far, he is the team’s top scorer and is considered by some as the ‘new Lionel Messi’, although he’s actually a few months older than the Barcelona starlet. Zarate has managed the impressive feat of replacing Goran Pandev, who had been a certain starter for years at Lazio, in the starting line up. He definitely has the potential to be a major new star of Argentinean football, as he’s scored a number of stunning goals already, although he has to become more consistent.

Sulley Muntari (Inter)

With Inter's strikers not exactly scoring freely at the moment, the Ghanaian midfielder came to the rescue against both Juventus and Napoli, scoring crucial goals for his new team. He's one of Inter's least publicised transfers of the last few years, but he's proving to be a shrewd purchase, and with his youth and dynamism he has leaped ahead of Patrick Vieira in the midfield pecking order.

PREDICTION

It's tough to choose between a draw and a win for Inter, but a tie probably wouldn't be seen as a disaster by Mourinho.

Lazio-Inter 1-1

Danilo Pochini

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