Inter face Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium early on Sunday afternoon in Serie A, hoping for a repeat of previous meetings with the Neroverdi to help revive their season.
The Nerazzurri have won all of the last three matches between the sides, two of which ended in a 7-0 drubbings for Eusebio Di Francesco’s men.
The most recent of which was in September when top scorer Mauro Icardi netted a hat-trick for Inter at the San Siro, while the Biscione’s last visit to Sassuolo in September 2013 also ended 7-0 thanks to goals from Rodrigo Palacio and Saphir Taider, incidentally now with Sassuolo.
Early season promise has since faded for Inter though and despite a morale boosting transfer window they have still only won just two of their nine Serie A games since the return of Roberto Mancini, with their last game ending in a 1-0 home defeat to Torino last Sunday.
Similarly, Sassuolo are on a poor run of just one win in their last seven after a 2-1 defeat at Cagliari last time out, but the solitary victory was at AC Milan and the run has also seen them earn impressive 2-2 and 3-3 draws at Roma and Genoa respectively.
The Neroverdi though will be much happier with being 12th in Serie A just one point behind Inter than their opponents will be with their 10th place position, and they will fancy their chances of overtaking Mancini’s side with just one home defeat all season.
Two of Serie A’s biggest attacking threats will come head to head at the Mapei with Simone Zaza and Mauro Icardi both crucial to their respective team’s chances of taking all three points at the weekend.
Sassuolo will be without the suspended Francesco Acerbi and Antonio Floro Flores and the injured Federico Peluso while Inter loanee Saphir Taider is at the African Cup of Nations, with Emanuele Terranova for Acerbi expected to be the only change from last week’s defeat.
Inter will be missing the suspended Juan Jesus and Danilo D’Ambrosio for their trip to Emilia-Romagna, while Marco Andreolli has a hamstring tear and the game should come too early for Yuto Nagatomo.
Mancini is expected to make four changes to last week’s side, with Hugo Campagnaro, Dodo, Andrea Ranocchia and Gary Medel replacing D’Ambrosio, Andreolli, Joel Obi and Zdravko Kuzmanovic.
Form Guide: Sassuolo (L-D-W-D-D-L), Inter (W-D-D-W-D-L)
Expected Starting XIs
Sassuolo: Consigli, Gazzola, Cannavaro, Terranova, Vrsaljko, Brighi, Magnanelli, Missiroli, Berardi, Zaza, Sansone
Inter: Handanovic, Campagnaro, Vidic, Ranocchia, Dodo, Guarin, Medel, Palacio, Kovacic, Podolski, Icardi
