Inter Milan headed into the enforced shut-down of the Italian Serie A season with back-to-back defeats against Lazio and Juventus, but it should be noted that both of these losses were incurred away from home.
Sunday’s hosts, Inter Milan, still occupy 3rd place in the Italian top flight and already look to be ensured of a top four finish and a Champions League spot for next season as they hold a commanding nine-point lead over 5th placed Roma prior to this weekend’s round of fixtures.
Inter will now return to their Stadio Giuseppe Meazza where they’ve posted a stubborn record of W7, D4 and L1 as the hosts have made themselves hard to beat and this is indicted by an unbeaten run of eight matches leading into this upcoming encounter against Sampdoria.
Inter Milan have won four of these last eight with wins against Hellas Verona, SPAL, Genoa and most impressive of all, a 4-2 win over bitter local rivals, AC Milan, so the hosts will be in confident mood ahead of this clash.
Onto Sampdoria, and the visitors eased their relegation worries with a 2-1 home win against Hellas Verona just before the lockdown was imposed, and this result helped lift Sampdoria up into fifth from bottom on the Serie A ladder and more importantly, a point above the relegation zone.
However, Sampdoria are far from out of the woods yet and face a very tough trip to Milan to take on high-flying Inter Milan who will be desperate to make the most of home advantage and return to winning ways.
Despite recording wins at Genoa and Torino on the road in recent times, Sampdoria have also been handed defeats at Cagliari and Lazio, while the bigger picture shows that the visitors have picked up just three wins from their previous 15 matches on their travels, losing nine of these matches.
This is not the sort of form that Sampdoria need in order to stave off the possibility of a relegation battle, and Inter Milan have proved to be tough opponents for the visitors as their hosts have won each of the previous five encounters between these two teams, recording 3-1, 2-1, 1-0, 5-0 and 3-2 wins respectively.
🎥 Muscoli in tensione: i blucerchiati di #Ranieri verso #InterSamp ➡️ https://t.co/7bCN1eIwpM pic.twitter.com/mduZaWEvGr— U.C. Sampdoria (@sampdoria) June 16, 2020
🎥 Muscoli in tensione: i blucerchiati di #Ranieri verso #InterSamp ➡️ https://t.co/7bCN1eIwpM pic.twitter.com/mduZaWEvGr
Inter Milan therefore look set to register the points here.