Inter Milan vs Crvena Zvezda predictions: Inter to edge tight affair
- Inter have won five of their last nine home Champions League matches 1-0
- Crvena Zvezda have failed to score on three of their last six trips to Italy
- Recommended Bet: Back Inter to win 1-0
Inter Milan will attempt to follow up their fine result at the Etihad Stadium with a win at home to Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Simone Inzaghi’s side kept Manchester City at bay in a goalless draw two weeks ago, but the onus will be on the Nerazzurri to attack this time.
Crvena Zvezda are dominating their domestic competition again after winning eight and drawing one of their first nine Serbian league games.
They will hope the return of Vladan Milojevic, the coach who oversaw a famous home win over Liverpool six years ago, sees them achieve better away results than last year when they lost all three Champions League group games.
Team news
Piotr Zielinski, Stefan de Vrij and Mehdi Taremi are all set to start after coming off the bench in the second half of Inter’s 3-2 win at Udinese on Saturday.
Zielinski is set to replace Henrikh Mkhitaryan in midfield with De Vrij tipped to take the spot of Francesco Acerbi in Inzaghi’s three-man defence.
Marcus Thuram may drop out to accommodate Taremi’s recall up front. Tajon Buchanan and Nicolo Barella are the only confirmed absentees through injury.
As for the visitors, goalkeeper Omri Glazer has a chance to play at the San Siro despite leaving the pitch with an apparent hamstring injury on Friday night.
Midfielder Mirko Ivanic is battling to overcome an adductor problem he suffered in his side’s 4-0 derby win over Partizan while young right-back Ognjen Mimovic has yet to return from an injury he sustained against Benfica.
The stats
Inter are unbeaten in their last nine home matches in the Champions League with clean sheets recorded in 13 of their last 22 matches in the competition — more than any other team since the start of the 2022-23 season.
In their opening League stage game, the Nerazzurri became only the second Champions League opponent, after Sporting Lisbon in March 2022, to shut out a Pep Guardiola-coached Manchester City team at home.
Inter are undefeated in eight previous European matches against Serbian clubs with six wins and two draws in that time.
Crvena Zvezda have won two of their 23 previous meetings with Serie A opposition, the most recent of which was a 3-1 home win over Roma in December 2005.
Prediction
Inter got back to winning ways at the weekend following their surprise derby defeat against AC Milan.
They once more failed to keep a clean sheet on the road — a trend that became notable at the end of last season.
But Inzaghi’s side are usually good for a clean sheet at home in this competition.
The Nerazzurri have recorded seven shutouts in their last nine home Champions League games with six of those won and five of them by the minimum scoreline.
They were superb at the back in Manchester too and with Crvena Zvezda expected to take a cautious approach in Milan, a 1-0 home win might be the likeliest outcome.
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