Inter v Lazio Match Preview

Inter go into today's game against Lazio 8 points behind Milan with 5 games including this one to go and the odds are severely stacked against us for the Scudetto but we are not giving up without a fight and anything is possible as Lazio themselves proved years ago when they made up 9 points in the last 5 games to take the title.  For us to stand a chance though we must win every game to come and hope Milan make a mess of their run in! Even if we don't catch Milan we have still got a fight on our hands as we could finish anywhere from 2nd down to 4th or 5th if we're not careful and a win for Lazio today would put them on the same points as us so this definitely is a must win for us as an in form Udinese are only 4 points behind going in to this weekend.

Squad Selection

Leonardo has named 21 players in his match-day squad for today's game against Lazio, the Nerazzurri's Serie A 2010/11 Week 34 fixture to be played at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan's San Siro district (15:00 kick-off).

Goalkeepers:
1 Julio Cesar, 12 Luca Castellazzi, 21 Paolo Orlandoni;

Defenders:
4 Javier Zanetti, 6 Lucio, 13 Maicon, 15 Andrea Ranocchia, 23 Marco Materazzi, 26 Cristian Chivu, 55 Yuto Nagatomo;

Midfielders:
5 Dejan Stankovic, 10 Wesley Sneijder, 14 Houssine Kharja, 17 MacDonald Mariga, 19 Esteban Cambiasso, 20 Joel Obi, 29 Philippe Coutinho;

Forwards:
7 Giampaolo Pazzini, 9 Samuel Eto'o, 22 Diego Milito, 27 Goran Pandev.

It's good to see Eto'o back in the squad and let's hope that the Inter strike force can break the barren spell that they're suffering against Lazio today

Leonardo's Press Conference

"Lazio remain Lazio: player by player, they're a great team, really competitive. It wasn't easy for them to push on after last season but they've managed to. They have done really well and they are in good form." That was what Leonardo had to say about Inter's opponents today, in the Serie A 2010/11 Week 34 fixture that will be played at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan's San Siro district (15:00 kick-off).
A journalist then asked the coach to speak about the club's targets for the rest of the season: "In the league, it's difficult to think that we can make up 8 points in 5 games, but we'll try to win all our matches anyway. We'll try to maintain consistency in our performances and in our results so that we can do as well as we can. Then there's the Coppa Italia. What about the risk of finishing fourth? At the moment we're third and our only target is to win all our games. We're only thinking about that."
So that's the Nerazzurri's target, which will have to be achieved despite the tiredness of the players. "It's normal to be tired in this period, it's the same for everyone, but it needs to be analysed well. We didn't look tired against Roma, did we? That means the team is capable of digging deep and that's what we'll try to do from here until the end. It wasn't easy in the cup down in Rome but the team did really well. In football there are defeats that aren't decisive and others that are - and unfortunately we've had a few of those. But the players have shown many times that they know how to respond to them, just as they have this time."
The Nerazzurri coach is then asked about Giampaolo Pazzini's barren streak: "A striker is dependent on the way the team moves and plays, so his form is always a result of many things. There's no problem with Pazzini."

It's not just Pazzini that's having problems scoring as even Eto'o hasn't found the net in quite a few games but i have complete faith in our team and I'm sure that if the wing backs and midfielders can get the balls into the box then Eto'o, Pazzini or Milito will have no trouble burying them in the net.



Inevitably the transfer market was brought up, with another question about Ganso, Santos' exciting young talent: "So much has been written about that but we have never made a move for him. I have been in personal contact with him for a long time, that's all. The time for talking about transfers is not now and no attempt has been made. At the moment there is no offer, no plan, no specific idea."
So what will the Inter of the future look like? Who will be coming and going ahead of next season? That was another question put to Leonardo. "This team was doing fantastically well until three weeks ago. I don't think we really need to be worrying about the future and what Inter will become, at least not now. At the moment nobody is thinking about who is going to be leaving."
Quizzed on his own future, the coach replied: "I'm not the sort of person who thinks about these things. I can't be worrying about what will be in the future because I'm focused on what I have to do now, starting with Lazio."

My Prediction

Lazio are a team that are playing very well this season compared to the last campaign so they will obviously be going all out for the win to put them on level points with us in 3rd, so Inter need to play intelligently and take advantage of all opportunities that come our way, which we should be able to do, so I'm going to go for a 2-1 win for Inter this afternoon which if Palermo play like they did against Milan in this afternoons game against Napoli should see us regain 2nd place.