Juventus projected lineup vs Inter Milan: Ronaldo looks to win first Derby d’Italia
By John Vaccaro
Juventus and Inter Milan will meet on Friday in Torino for the 239th Derby d’Italia.
Juventus currently holds the lead in the series having won 105 matches to Inter’s 71. They have also dominated in recent history, winning 10 of the last 17 meetings between the two teams while Inter has only managed 3 wins in that span that dates back to 2011. The recent fortunes of these teams has looked pretty similar outside of their meetings as well.
We all know about Juve’s recent successes. They have won the last 7 Scudetti, appeared in 2 of the last 4 Champions League Finals, won the Coppa Italia the last 4 years, and currently sit atop Serie A with an 8 point cushion between them and second place Napoli. They have also won their last 4 matches while keeping clean sheets in each of those matches.
Inter hasn’t been quite so successful recently. Their qualification for the Champions League last season ended a 7 year stretch where they didn’t appear in the competition. This season they are in position to qualify for the Champions League again, but they are 11 points behind Juventus and 3 points behind 2nd place Napoli. They have also won just 1 of their last 5 matches with the one win coming against 19th place Frosinone. The rest of their competition in that stretch was pretty tough, but 5 points in 5 matches isn’t a positive run regardless of the competition.
To pile on to Inter’s poor run Juventus will need to overcome some injury issues. Sami Khedira will remain sidelined for the match and now Rodrigo Bentancur is dealing with a back injury, leaving Juve with just 3 healthy midfielders. It appears they will also be missing Alex Sandro for the match, which is a big hit for the defense. The injury to Bentancur means we are likely to see a 4-4-2 against Inter as Emre Can won’t be ready to be given a start in his first match back from a month long absence.