Inter welcome Torino to the San Siro on Sunday afternoon in Serie A, and will be looking to make it six league games unbeaten.
The home side are on their best domestic run of the season so far, and followed up their streak by claiming a 2-0 victory in their Coppa Italia tie against Sampdoria last weekend.
Meanwhile, Torino haven’t tasted defeat in any of their last six Serie A fixtures. However, unlike their counterparts, they are no longer in Italy’s cup competition after losing at home to Lazio.
Controversial Italy striker Pablo Osvaldo hit the news in the week prior to this match due to some more on and off-field trouble. The player has been suspended by Inter with immediate effect, and is widely expected to leave the club to return to the Premier League before the end of the month.
This leaves the Nerazzurri without one of their main sources of goals, and will now be relying on leading goalscorer Mauro Icardi and midfielder Mateo Kovacic to provide the goalscoring goods. With Osvaldo excluded, the Croatia international is Inter’s second highest goalscorer, and with a tally of four is a worry for the club.
Torino have attacking issues which have been needing some attention, particularly now during this transfer window. Centre-back Kamil Glik comes in as the club’s joint-highest goalscorer this season, sharing the accolade with Fabio Quagliarella, who is bearing the weight of an underperforming attacking compartment. The aging Amauri is yet to hit the net after 11 league appearances, while Josef Martinez has one solitary strike from 10 outings.
Inter coach Mancini has been quick to bolster his squad in this window, adding established duo Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri to his side’s swelling ranks. Lucas Leiva of Liverpool and Rolando of Porto are just two other players who have been heavily linked to the side in recent weeks.
Other than Osvaldo’s absence, Inter are without two players for this fixture. Wideman Yuto Nagatomo is away on international duty, while defender Juan Jesus is suspended.
The away outfit are taking a fully-fit complement of players to Milan for this clash, as well as having no players away on international duty at either the African Nations Cup or Asian Cup.
The two sides are separated by four points in the Serie A table, and Torino could potentially move up to 11th place from their current 13th. Inter could pull themselves up to seventh place, from the ninth place that they currently stand in.
Form Guide: Inter (L-W-D-D-W-D) Torino (D-D-W-D-D-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Inter: Handanovic; Campagnaro, Ranocchia, Vidic, D’Ambrosio; Guarin, Medel; Shaqiri, Hernanes, Podolski; Icardi
Torino: Padelli; Maksimovic, Jansson, Moretti; Bruno Peres, Benassi, Gazzi, Farnerud, Darmian; Martinez, Quagliarella
