Inter Milan host FC Porto in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 at Sansiro on Wednesday, looking to gain a first leg advantage.
The 2010 Champions League winners finished second behind Bayern Munich hence setting up a tie against the Portuguese champions who topped group B.
The italians whose journey ended at this similar stage last season after being eliminated by Liverpool will be hoping to better their performance this time around.
Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi is confident that the fact that they made it out of a tricky group, they can go all the way. Inzaghi according to Reuters said:
We are going into the last 16 full of confidence. It’s been an incredible journey. We conquered our group. On paper Barcelona and Bayern Munich were teams that everyone wanted to avoid.
Inzaghi’s men will be banking on the form of the trio of Romero Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lautaro Martinez. The three will look forward to replicating their displays that saw them trounce Udinese 3-1 at the weekend in which all three went on the score sheet .
FC Porto recovered from a disappointing start to their UCL campaign that saw them lose back to back games to both Atletico Madrid and Club Brugges, but the 2004 champions surprised many when they won the reverse fixtures
Sergio Conceicao’s side currently occupy the second spot in the table standings and are two points adrift of Benifica who top with a game in hand.
Porto’s most recent outing was a 1-0 win over Rio courtesy of Toni Martinez’s strike. That win saw them maintain their 22 unbeaten run across all competitions that dates since October.
The visitors will hope that their backline which has conceded only once in their last eight games will maintain the same grit as they look to outperform their opponents. Mehdi Taremi who has scored 11 goals so far is expected to keep his scoring boots on.
TEAM NEWS
Inter milan will be without Joaquin Correa who has a thigh injury.
Porto will be without Evanilson, Fabio Cardoso, Gabriel Veron, Francisco Meixedo who are injured while Mateus Uribe ,Toni Martinez and Galeno are all a doubt.
