On Thursday night, Italian giants Internazionale head to Bulgaria to face Ludogorets in the first-leg of the last 32 of the Europa League.
Ludogorets head into this game having only played one competitive game in the last month and a half. Playing against a top-quality team is not the best welcome back to competitive action. The Bulgarians may be slightly rusty in this clash. However, they came back to competitive action with a bang with a weekend 6-0 victory over Botev Vratsa.
The home side are playing in their second European competition of the season, having started the campaign in the Champions League, just like the visitors. Ludogorets failed to make the group stages of European football’s elite competition, though.
They fared slightly better in the group stages of the Europa League, although the home side failed to win any of their last four group matches, having won their opening two against CSKA Moscow and Ferencvaros.
Ludogorets have a slightly patchy recent home record in the Europa League, winning three of their last nine matches on home soil.
Inter have now suffered back-to-back defeats in all competitions after a 1-0 Coppa Italia defeat against Napoli and a potentially costly 2-1 defeat against title rivals Lazio last time out.
Winning the Scudetto is the Nerazzurri’s main priority this season. Therefore, it is unclear if the visitors will take this competition seriously.
Inter found themselves in the Europa League after finishing third-place in a Champions League group involving Barcelona, Dortmund and Slavia Prague. It was always going to be a difficult group.
The visitors have a mixed record in the Europa League of late, as they have won just three of their last seven games in the competition. Last season they suffered an exit at the hands of German team Eintracht Frankfurt.
Forebet predicts that Inter will record a victory in a low-scoring encounter to take into next week’s second leg in Milan.