Serie A match day 26 starts Friday night at the Picco Stadium where Spezia host second placed Inter.
The Nerazzurri bounced back from the 1-0 defeat away at Bologna and beat Lecce 2-0 in their last league game. Now they have to overturn their performances when they don’t play in San Siro.
Simone Inzaghi’s side has won just one of their last three away league games, failing to score in the last two against Bologna and bottom-placed Sampdoria.
They will never have a better chance as Spezia are win-less in their last seven Serie A matches, losing four of them.
Things have improved a little bit under new coach Leonardo Semplici as they have drawn the last two matches against Udinese and Verona.
The problem is that the relegation zone is just three points away and with a loss they may be behind Verona when the game week ends.
Results from their last five matches in all competitions:
Spezia:
D D L D L
Inter:
W L W W D
Team News
Inter coach Simone Inzaghi has an eye on Tuesday’s clash against Porto in Champions League and for this reason many changes are expected in the line-up.
Starting from the goal where Samir Handanovic is likely to get a spot over André Onana, with the latter retaking his place in Champions League.
Milan Skriniar is still out injured, Danilo D’Ambrosio is in contention to take his place. If he’ll start the game, Matteo Darmian will play wide on the right otherwise he’ll play in the back-three with Denzel Dumfries starting the game on the right.
Hakan Calhnoglu is likely to start from the bench while Romelu Lukaku will regain his starting spot after being benched against Lecce.
No major changes expected in Spezia’s line-up: Mbala Nzola, who has scored six goals in his last seven Serie A appearances, will be the lone striker.
Predicted XIs
Spezia (4-2-3-1): Dragowski; Amian, Ampadu, Caldara, Nikolaou; Bourabia, Ekdal; Zurkowski, Shomurodov, Gyasi; Nzola.
Inter (3-5-2): Handanovic; D’Ambrosio, Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian, Barella, Brozovic, Mkhitaryan, Gosens; Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez.
Andrea Agostinelli | GIFN
