At the halfway point of the Champions League group sees the Catalan giants travel to the San Siro on Tuesday to take on Inter Milan. The teams come into this clash in contrasting forms but as we all know that anything can happen in the UEFA Champions League, you can never rule anybody out.
Barcelona face the stern test of Inter Milan looking to bounce back from a 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in their most recent Champions League match. Barcelona were able to be a dominant presence against the German champions but were not as clinical in front of goal failing to convert any one of their chances. Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has said, “we must play like how we played against Bayern, but we must be more effective in front of goal”, noticing that his team must do better in front of goal if they are to emerge victorious in this clash. The last time these sides faced each other, Barcelona won by 2-1 back in the 2018/19 Champions League campaign.
Inter Milan are currently on a rough run of results, having only 2 wins in their last 5 games in all competitions, wins coming against Torino and Viktoria Plzen, while losing to Udinese, Bayern Munich and Roma. In their most recent Champions League game though, Inter were victorious 2-0 against Viktoria Plzen , and they can take the positives of that game as they prepare a hostile welcoming of FC Barcelona. The 20/21 Italian Champions have been severely underperforming in the Serie A this season as they currently sit 9th after 8 games gathering 12 points (4W, 0D, 4L). With the recent run of the results and their positioning on the Serie A table, pressure has begun mounting on manager Simone Inzaghi, with questions and rumours swirling the Inter camp now whether he is the right man to continue with Inter’s campaign.
Even Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi has openly praised Barcelona’s performance against Bayern Munich, openly admitting that “If you look at the statistics, Barça unreservedly lost to Bayern Munich. For me, Barça is one of the strongest teams in the world, alongside Man City”. It can safely be said that Inter have a tough task up ahead of them and what adds an even boulder to their cart is stopping in-form striker, Robert Lewandowski. The Polish striker has been the focus of attention for Barcelona this season, since he joined them from German champions Bayern Munich, with his non-stop goal scoring. Inter Milan will need to be on top of their if they want to stand a chance to be able to deter Robert from even sniffing the back of the net, however they have already conceded 13 goals in 8 games in the Serie A this season. Lewandowski has scored 9 goals in La Liga so far this season and is their top scorer, and in the Champions League he scored a hattrick in their opening game before failing to score against his former club.
Both teams are level on points in Group C with 3 points each and Barcelona (2nd) edge Inter (3rd) just on goal difference, having scored 5 and conceded 2. Inter Milan likewise suffered an opening 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich but were able to follow that up with a 2-0 win of their own against Viktoria Plzen. We can expect another dominant Barcelona display so you can really expect them to take all the points in this one.
