Parma face a mountain to climb on Thursday night despite holding home advantage at their Stadio Ennio Tardini when they play host to the current Serie A league leaders, Inter Milan, especially as the hosts continue to struggle down near the foot of the domestic top flight.
Parma occupy second from bottom in Serie A and find themselves five points adrift of fourth from bottom outfit, Torino, and safety ahead of this tough looking fixture against their in-form visitors, thanks to enduring a barren spell of 15 league matches without a win.
Within this wretched sequence of results are nine defeats which have ensured that Parma remain in the bottom three of Serie A, and having managed to register just two wins throughout this whole campaign to date, the chances of the hosts picking up all three points here seem slim at best.
Parma are also winless in their last 10 matches at home, losing five of their last six matches with eight of these last 10 games also seeing the hosts fail to hit the back of the net.
By contrast, Inter Milan are flying high, sitting atop Serie A with a four-point cushion above their 2nd placed local rivals, AC Milan, and confidence is expected to be high amongst the Inter camp as the visitors have won their last five matches on the trot.
Recent victories over Benevento 4-0, Fiorentina 2-0, Lazio 3-1, AC Milan 3-0 and a 3-0 home win over Genoa is the sort of form which wins league titles and Inter Milan look every bit contenders for this season’s Serie A title.
The bigger picture shows that Inter Milan have lost just one of their last 20 matches overall in Serie A, winning 15 of these 20 matches while on the road, Antonio Conte’s side have lost just once in their last 18 matches on their travels in the Italian top flight.
Eight out of Inter Milan’s 12 away matches so far this season have produced 2 goals or more for the visitors whose only absentee for this upcoming clash is likely to be midfielder Sensi with a muscle injury.
Inter’s forwards, Lukaku (18 goals) and Martinez (13 goals) will be keen to fire their side to another three points here as they take another step closer to winning the Serie A title.