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2024/25 Serie A
Matchday 8
Roma v Inter Milan
Stadio Olimpico
Rome, Italy
Sunday, 20 October 2024
Kick-off is at 18h45
Defending champions Inter Milan will be looking to stay in touch with the
Serie A leaders when they head to the capital for a clash with Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, October 20 in the late kick-off.
The Nerazzurri beat Torino 3-2 on October 5 to make it-back-to-back wins since suffering a 2-1 defeat to arch-rivals AC Milan last month which ended their unbeaten start to the season.
Simone Inzaghi's side are the joint-leading scorers alongside Atalanta with 16 goals, but they've also shipped nine in seven matches to give their head coach a cause for concern.
Inter are the closest challengers to Napoli and trail their title rivals by two points in second place, with the trio of Juventus (3rd), Lazio (4th) and Udinese (5th) all following closely behind a further point back.
The Giallorossi have also lost just once this term, although they've found results harder to come by after drawing four of their opening seven games.
A 1-1 stalemate at Monza on October 6 left Ivan Juric's side down in 10th position, six points off the league summit despite going undefeated in their last five matches.
In team news, Stephan El Shaarawy, Paulo Dybala (both muscular) and Alexis Saelemaekers (ankle) are all closing in on their returns for the hosts. Nicolo Barella (muscular) could come back into contention for the visitors, while Tajon Buchanan (ligament) is rated doubtful for the trip to the Eternal City.
Juric was pleased with the performance if not the result against Monza, stating that his players need to be more ruthless in the final third if they want to keep making progress.
"Roma played a great match even if now everything seems negative," he said. "The result is not good, it's a shame, and even more so when we look at the penalty.
"However, the level of ball management has been raised. We need to raise the level of anger and aggressivity, and desire to close out the opportunities we create.
"If we play games like this we will go a long way. We can do beautiful things but we need to be more ruthless and tough in the decisive moments of the game."
Image Source: Alamy Stock Photo
Inzaghi admitted there is plenty of room for improvement after seeing Inter concede two goals in successive league games for the first time since May 2023.
"Clearly, we need to improve in some aspects, we pay a heavy price for every tiny distraction," he said. "We worked really hard on details that need to be whittled down, the lads have great spirit, but considering everything we did today, today'' game shouldn't have ended 3-2.
"Seeing a team perform like this in three matches makes me want to congratulate these guys. We need to keep working the way we are, and in our penalty area, we all need to be more attentive. We're working on it, and we need to do more."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Serie A Meetings)
Matches - 5
Roma wins - 1
Inter Milan wins - 4
Draws - 0
Serie A Matchday 8 fixtures:
Saturday, October 19
13h00: Como v Parma
13h00: Genoa v Bologna
16h00: AC Milan v Udinese
18h45: Juventus v Lazio
Sunday, October 20
10h30: Empoli v Napoli
13h00: Lecce v Fiorentina
13h00: Venezia v Atalanta
16h00: Cagliari v Torino
18h45: Roma v Inter Milan
Monday, October 21
18h45: Verona v Monza
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