MILAN – There are just a few hours to go until Torino and Inter walk out at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin for their Serie A 2015/16 Week 12 match (12:30 CET kick-off), which leaves you just enough time to delve into our collection of stats on the contest, compiled in collaboration with Opta!
HEAD TO HEAD
This lunchtime will see the 143rd meeting between the two sides in the top tier of Italian football. As things stand, the Nerazzurri lead the way with 63 wins to the Granata’s 33, while there have been a further 46 draws.
After Juventus (65), Inter are the team that have beaten Torino the most times in Serie A (63).
Torino were 1-0 away winners the last time these two sides met in Serie A (on 25 January 2015), putting paid to the Nerazzurri’s 21-match unbeaten streak against the Granata (15 wins, six draws).
Torino had just 30% possession in the last meeting between these two sides, their lowest share of possession in any Serie A match since May 2007.
There have been 18 0-0 draws between Torino and Inter in Serie A, including last year’s meeting at the Stadio Olimpico.
Torino kept a clean sheet in both their league matches with Inter last season, their best run of league matches without conceding against the Nerazzurri since 1978 (when they managed four matches without letting a goal in).
PAST MEETINGS IN TURIN
It’s been a more even contest when the two sides have met in Turin: the home side have won 23 to the Nerazzurri’s 26, with 22 draws making up the rest of the 71 past league meetings in Piedmont.
The Granata have picked up just two points in their last 11 home matches against Inter, both of which came from draws in the last two seasons (before that they’d endured a run of nine straight defeats).
In those last two draws at the Olimpico, Inter had a man sent off and conceded a penalty (both of which were saved).
SUNDAY LUNCH
Torino have won just one of their 12 Serie A matches played at Sunday lunchtime, drawing six and losing the other five. Six of these have come at home, with the Granata failing to score in all but two of those matches.
Today will be the 14th time Inter have played at Sunday lunchtime (seven wins, three draws and three defeats). Nine of these have been away matches, with the Nerazzurri keeping a clean sheet in six of them, while they have conceded three goals in each of their other three lunchtime kick-offs.
CURRENT FORM
With last Saturday’s loss to Juventus, Torino extended their winless run to five matches (two draws, three defeats).
Nonetheless, the 15 points racked up by the Granata in the first 11 weeks of the season mean this is their best start to the season since 1994/95. Torino are unbeaten at home in seven league matches (five wins followed by two draws) and have found the net in all of those games for a total of 18 goals in seven matches, or 2.6 goals per game.
Inter are unbeaten in five matches (two wins, three draws), the second-best unbeaten run in Serie A after Napoli (10). The Nerazzurri have secured six 1-0 wins already this season (the most of any club in the league) and have scored just one goal in nine out of the first 11 games of the season.
Roberto Mancini’s side are the only Serie A side still to lose on the road this year and have the best away record in the league: eleven points from three wins and two draws.
GENERAL STATS
Inter have the best defence of any side in Serie A so far this season with just seven goals conceded, just three of which have come on the road. The Nerazzurri also lead the way in terms of clean sheets with seven.
Torino have the fourth-best shot-conversion ratio in Serie A (16.8%) behind Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Roma. The Granata also have the third-highest shots-on-target percentage with 49.5%, a stat bettered only by Roma and Sassuolo.
Torino have conceded five headed goals this season, a tally only topped by Verona and Empoli’s six. Inter are yet to concede a header – as are Fiorentina and Frosinone.
Gary Medel’s winner against Roma came in the 31st minute of the match. Roberto Mancini’s are yet to score in the first 30 minutes of any of their 11 league matches so far this season – a dubious honour they share with Verona.
Only Verona (13) have conceded more second-half goals than Torino (12) this season. The Granata have conceded three times the number of second-half goals Inter have (4). The Nerazzurri have conceded the joint-lowest number of goals after half-time this season, alongside Sassuolo.
Giampiero Ventura’s side are the league’s top scorers from corners this season with four goals.
Today’s match sees one of the two Serie A sides to have had all their goals this season scored by non-Italians (Inter – Fiorentina are the other) go toe-to-toe with the team with the highest number of goals scored by Italians (Torino on 12, tied with Samp).
Torino have fallen behind a full nine times this season, a worrying record they share with Bologna, but to their credit they are the team that has recovered most points after having gone behind in a match (9). In the five main European Leagues, only the Premier League’s Leicester City (10) can better that stat.
PLAYER FOCUS
Samir Handanovic was sent off away to Turin in October 2013 after conceding a penalty in the fifth minute of the match, but redeemed himself in August 2014 by saving a penalty in the same stadium to the detriment of Marcelo Larrondo. Handanovic has the highest penalty-saving percentage of any keeper in Serie A with 84%, and also has the most clean sheets this season with seven. He made nine saves against Roma on Saturday, a record in this edition of Serie A.
If selected today Fabio Quagliarella will make his 50th Serie A appearance for Torino. He has scored 17 goals so far. Looking at the teams he has faced at least seven times in the competition, Inter and AC Milan are the sides Quagliarella has most struggled to score against. He’s only managed one goal in 17 matches against the Nerazzurri. Quagliarella is without a goal in six matches, his longest barren spell in the current calendar year.
Only Carpi man Ryder Matos (6) has had more headed shots on target than Torino’s Quagliarella and Kamil Glik (4) this season (the striker has scored one, but the Polish defender is still goalless).
Emiliano Moretti decided the last league meeting between Torino and Inter with a goal in the 94th minute. He had already scored against the Nerazzurri once before, for Genoa, making Inter his favourite Serie A prey.
Maxi Lopez scored his third Serie A goal against Inter in March 2010, when he was a Catania player. He has failed to find the net in any of his eight league matches against the Nerazzurri since.
Torino and AC Milan are the only sides in this year’s Serie A that Mauro Icardi has not yet found the net against (not including Carpi and Frosinone, who he has never played against in the competition). Icardi has scored three goals and made two assists in his last five away matches. The Argentine is the most prolific striker in the 2015 calendar year (nine goals in Serie A).
Daniele Baselli has scored four goals from just six shots on goal this season (not including blocked shots). The midfielder’s 67% conversion rate is the highest of any Serie A player to have tried at least five shots this season.
Rodrigo Palacio has scored all of Inter’s last three Serie A goals against Torino. However, Palacio has failed to score in any of his nine league appearances so far this season. In 2014/15, the Argentine had to wait until December to score his first league goal after enduring a 14-match barren streak.
Both of Ivan Perisic’s two Serie A goals have come in 1-1 draws away from the San Siro, against Sampdoria and Palermo.
After scoring three important goals in the first two matches of the season, Stevan Jovetic has been unable to find the net in any of his subsequent six league games.
Jonathan Biabiany’s last Serie A goal came against Torino in May 2014. He was playing for Parma in their 1-1 away draw in Turin.
Adem Ljajic has scored against Torino for both Fiorentina and Roma, but hasn’t scored a league goal at all in 18 matches (since February 2015 in Cagliari v Roma). It’s his longest run without a goal since April 2012.
Danilo D’Ambrosio played for Torino between January 2010 and January 2014. The Nerazzurri full-back spent three seasons with the Granata in Serie B, helping them win promotion to Serie A and then going on to make 42 appearances for the club in the top tier, scoring four goals along the way (his only Serie A goals to date).
Joel Obi (50 appearances and two goals for Inter between 2010 and summer 2015) and Marco Benassi (six appearances in the 2012/13 season) both grew up in the Nerazzurri youth academy.
COACHES
Last January’s win over Inter was Giampiero Ventura’s first triumph against the Nerazzurri in 14 top-flight clashes (six draws and seven defeats).
By the same token, it was Roberto Mancini’s first Serie A defeat by the Granata as a coach after a run of five wins and two draws.
Ventura and Mancini are set to face off for just the third time in Serie A. It’s one win apiece as things stand.
REFEREE AND DISCIPLINE
Massimiliano Irrati has refereed 43 Serie A matches in his career, five of which have come in the current season. He has presided over four home wins and one draw so far this term and has kept his red card firmly in his pocket in all of those games.
Irrati has refereed Torino seven times in Serie A, with the Granata winning four, drawing two and losing just one of those matches.
Inter have been officiated by Irrati just once, the 1-0 home defeat to Torino on 25 January 2015.
Only Bologna (142) have committed fewer fouls than Inter this season (146). That said, the Nerazzurri are second in terms of cards received behind Sassuolo (36). The Nerazzurri have had 30 bookings and three red cards.
SUSPENDED
Torino: Bovo (one match).
Inter: Guarin (one match).
AT RISK OF SUSPENSION
Torino: N/A.
Inter: Kondogbia, Felipe Melo.
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