MILAN – It’s match day folks! Inter are back in front of the Nerazzurri faithful at San Siro with Sampdoria the visitors for an important Serie A Week 26 match at 20:45 CET this evening.
While you wait for kick-off, stick on Amala and swot up on our stat pack, courtesy of Opta.
HEAD TO HEAD
Inter and Sampdoria have played each other a total of 133 times in Serie A. The Nerazzurri have by far and away the better record, with 71 wins, 41 draws and 21 losses.
Sampdoria have won just one of their last ten matches against Inter (the 1-0 win at Marassi last season), losing five and drawing the other four.
The Blucerchiati have managed more than one goal in a game against Inter in just one in their last 18 matches against the Nerazzurri in Serie A – the 3-2 defeat in October 2012.
There have been 17 goalless draws between the two sides over the years, the most recent coming at the Meazza in February 2010. In fact, 0-0 is the most common result when Inter and Samp go toe to toe.
PREVIOUS MEETINGS IN MILAN
Inter have played 66 home matches against Sampdoria, with the Nerazzurri winning 42, drawing 17 and losing just two.
Inter are unbeaten in their last 13 league matches against Sampdoria at home (eight wins, five draws). Samp’s last win at San Siro came back in December 1996, when a brace from current Blucerchiati coach Vincenzo Montella helped them secure a 4-3 win.
FORM BOOK
Inter have picked up six points from their six games since the halfway point of the season. They had 15 points at this stage of the first half of the season.
Inter also secured four clean sheets from their first six games of the season, but the Nerazzurri have managed to keep the back door shut just once in their first six games of the second half of the season.
No Serie A side have picked up fewer points than Sampdoria in their last 13 games of the season (9). That run coincides with Montella taking over at the helm of the Blucerchiati.
Sampdoria have conceded at least once in each of their away matches so far this season (24 goals conceded in 12 games). The Blucerchiati have collected just four points from their last seven games (one win, one draw and five defeats).
GENERAL STATS
Sampdoria are in third position when it comes to their percentage of shots on target (47%). They’re also the league’s best team in terms of percentage of shots scored (18%), but sit third to last when it comes to overall number of shots (269). The Blucerchiati have also supplied the fewest crosses from open play this season, with just 230 in total.
Inter – along with Bologna – are the side that has scored the fewest headed goals this season (2).
The Nerazzurri and Bologna also shared the accolade of being the only sides in Serie A to have conceded just one goal from outside the area all season.
Saturday’s clash sees the third-best defence in the league (Inter, with 22 goals conceded) take on the second-worst (Sampdoria, with 43 goals conceded).
Watch out for the corners! Only Genoa (6) have conceded more goals from corners than Inter and Samp (both five) this Serie A season.
No side has conceded more goals than Samp in the first 15 minutes of the season (14), but Inter have managed just one goal in that period of the game (Biabiany, versus Frosinone).
Neither Inter nor Samp have come behind to win this season. Mancini’s side have managed three wins and six defeats from losing positions, while Montella’s men have banked three draws and 12 defeats.
PLAYER FOCUS
Mauro Icardi made his Serie A debut for Sampdoria, making it to double figures in his maiden league campaign (ten goals in 31 matches). The Inter forward found the net in his only game against Samp at the Meazza, scoring from the spot to hand the Nerazzurri a 1-0 win in October 2014.
Eder – who scored 12 goals in 19 appearances for Samp in the first half of the season – is still without a Serie A goal for Inter after 334 minutes on the pitch. He was averaging one goal every 137 minutes for Samp this season. The Italian international scored the only time he lined up against Sampdoria as an opposing player – it came on 1 May 2011 during his stint at Brescia.
Left to lead the line in Eder’s absence, Luis Muriel has been involved in three of Sampdoria’s last five goals, scoring two goals and providing one assist. Muriel has scored four Serie A goals against Inter, two of which have come in his three appearances at San Siro.
Rodrigo Palacio has scored four goals in his seven Serie A matches against Sampdoria for Inter, but failed to score against the Blucerchiati during his spell with Genoa.
Ivan Perisic goal in the 1-1 draw with Samp earlier in the season was his first in Serie A. The Croat has scored one goal in his last 15 games, supplying three assists.
Stevan Jovetic has scored just once (against Udinese) in his last 16 appearances and hasn’t had a shot on target in six games. The Montenegrin has scored one goal in five Serie A appearances against Samp.
Saturday’s match pits the goalkeeper with the highest save percentage in the league (Handanovic, 79%) against the goalkeeper who’s made the most saves (Viviano, 100) in this Serie A campaign.
Roberto Soriano has contributed to more Serie A goals than any other Samp player this season with 11 – seven goals and four assists.
Inter are Fabio Quagliarella’s bogey team: he’s notched just once in 18 league meetings against the Nerazzurri, his lowest goals-per-game ratio against any side he’s faced three times or more in Serie A.
Inter v Sampdoria sees a whole host of players return to their former clubs. Inter goalie Tommaso Berni made three appearances for the Blucerchiati in the 2012/13 season, while Jonathan Biabiany played 16 times and scored one goal for Samp in 2010/11. Antonio Cassano will also be making a return to San Siro, having made 28 appearances for Inter in the 2012/13 season. Cassano scored seven goals and made nine assists during his time with the Nerazzurri. He has scored five goals in 15 matches against Inter, meanwhile, including his first-ever Serie A goal, for Bari on 18 December 1999. Angelo Palombo made three appearances for Inter in 2012, Matias Silvestre played nine times for the club in 2012/13, while Emiliano Viviano spent the 2011-12 season at Inter but never made a Serie A appearance. More recently, three Inter players made the move to Sampdoria in the January transfer window: Andrea Ranocchia (129 appearances and six goals across five and a half seasons with Inter), Ricky Alvarez (73 appearances and 11 goals) and Dodo (20 appearances, none of which came in the 2015/16 season).
If picked to play against Samp on Saturday night, Yuto Nagatomo will make his 150th Serie A appearance.
IN THE DUGOUT
Roberto Mancini and Vincenzo Montella were Sampdoria team-mates in the 1996/97 season: it was Mancini’s last with the Blucerchiati, while Montella was just beginning his first season with the club. Between them they scored 37 goals that year, 22 for Montella and 15 for Mancini, thus contributing to 62% of Sampdoria’s Serie A goals in the 1996/97 season.
As a coach, Montella has a record of four wins, one draw and three defeats in eight games against Inter.
Montella picked up his only win against Inter at San Siro in his last away trip to the Nerazzurri. It came back in March 2015, when Montella was Fiorentina boss.
Mancini has taken on Sampdoria as a coach 12 times in Serie A. The Inter coach has lost just once against his old team, winning six and losing the other five.
REFEREE AND DISCIPLINE
Only Napoli have committed fewer fouls than Inter this season (310 plays 330), but only Atalanta have had more red cards than the Nerazzurri (11 plays eight).
Davide Massa will be taking charge of his 68th match in Serie A on Saturday night. This is his sixth season in the top flight.
Inter have won six of their nine league games under Massa, drawing one and losing the other two. Those six wins have come in the last seven matches under Massa.
SUSPENDED
Inter: Kondogbia (2), Medel (1), Telles (1)
Sampdoria: N/A
