Inter’s make-or-break month: key matches for Champions League and Serie A glory

Inter Milan’s tough road ahead: Roma, Barcelona, and Verona

Inter Milan’s fate rests on a single month. After the disappointment of the derby loss and the missed Coppa Italia final, the Nerazzurri are diving back into the league and the Champions League, with nerve-wracking challenges ahead. 

First Roma, then Barcelona. Simone Inzaghi prepares two possible versions of Inter Milan. 

“Here’s where the strategy will change from now on, especially in May,” says Inzaghi. “We’re playing World Cup finals every match,” and he’s not wrong: Inter Milan has no safety net. No room for error. So, it’s a matter of gritting their teeth for three more games: Roma, the first leg against Barcelona, and Verona. 

This means that the rotation system Inzaghi has been using since the start of the season is about to end. The alternations will continue until the Verona match on May 3. Then, from the second leg against Barcelona onwards, Inzaghi will field his best players in every match, limiting or even eliminating rotation for the last four games of the season. 

This is also in the hope of adding one more game, to be played on May 31 in Monaco.

At most, it will be with the best players, as this Inter Milan has shown a small flaw: it needs a high level of fitness and a few irreplaceable players to play its best football. Otherwise, it becomes a vulnerable team. Especially a team that doesn’t know how to wear a different “outfit” from its usual one. It can do this for short spells — like the two games against Bayern — but not as its default approach.

The goal, in any case, is to avoid the curse of “zero titles.” Right now, the team feels the weight more than the joy of the 51 games they’ve played so far. 

Inzaghi will need to change this mindset in the coming hours. And maybe rely on a statistic: he’s never lost three consecutive games with Inter.

The Two Possible Lineups

Here are the possible lineups drawn up by La Gazzetta dello Sport via Fcinter1908.it:

Against Roma: Sommer, Pavard, Acerbi, Bisseck, Frattesi, Barella, Darmian, Calhanoglu, Carlos Augusto, Lautaro, Arnautovic.

Against Barcelona: Sommer, Pavard, Acerbi, Bastoni, Barella, Mkhitaryan, Dumfries, Calhanoglu, Dimarco, Thuram, Lautaro