Juventus vs Inter Milan: Preview and Prediction
The fourth Derby d’Italia of the 2021/22 campaign sees Juventus and Inter Milan battle it out in the Coppa Italia final. Wednesday’s clash will be the first time these two sides meet in the Coppa Italia final since 1965.
Juve is yet to taste victory over the Scudetto-chasing Nerazzurri this term. They were beaten in February’s Supercoppa Italiana and the most recent Serie A fixture after drawing the opening encounter of the season last October.
Sitting fourth in the Serie A standings, Max Allegri’s men have stumbled several times this term, and though their first clash with Inter saw the points shared in October’s 1-1 draw with Paulo Dybala scoring a late equaliser from the spot.
Inter enjoyed sweet revenge at the start of this year. On that occasion, the Supercoppa Italiana went the way of Inter, as Alexis Sanchez snatched a stoppage-time winner to deny the Bianconeri an opportunity to try their luck in a penalty shootout.
Allegri has since imposed some authority on an ailing side, which helped them grind their way to 16 domestic games without defeat, but they were once again beaten when Inter travelled to Turin just last month.
Current Form
Juventus registered a 3-0 aggregate win over Fiorentina in the semi-finals
Juventus reached the competition’s showpiece event thanks to a 3-0 aggregate victory over Fiorentina in the semi-finals. Most recently, they were outplayed by a modest Genoa side who won 2-1 over the weekend against the Old Lady. Prior to the Genoa game, Juventus had gone undefeated in five matches since losing to Inter last month, winning four.
Having also exited the Champions League to giant-killers, Villarreal, Juve is staring at a season without silverware for the first time in a decade if they cannot claim the Coppa on Wednesday, but history suggests that even some patchy form – including Friday’s defeat at lowly Genoa – will not deter them.
After lifting the trophy in four consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2018, the defending champions are specialists in this competition, and following wins over Sampdoria, Sassuolo and Fiorentina in the previous rounds, the Old Lady will grace the final once more.
Inter, meanwhile, progressed at the expense of their crosstown rivals via the same scoreline following a comfortable second leg triumph. Simone Inzaghi’s side head into the bout with their Scudetto aspirations still intact. They were forced to come from behind to beat Empoli on Friday evening.
Though their pursuit of a second successive Scudetto seems set to end in failure, Inter has already lifted one trophy this season, and they will be keen to now add to their Supercoppa success by dashing the hopes of their old foes from Turin.
Indeed, before the Nerazzurri’s title win last year, they had failed to secure a single significant trophy since the Club World Cup back in 2011, which followed hot on the heels of their treble triumph under Jose Mourinho.
Head to Head Record
Checking on their most recent head to head meetings going back to April 2019 shows us that Juventus has won four of these fixtures while Inter Milan has won three, with the number of drawn games standing at four. A combined sum of 25 goals was scored between them in these games, with 13 of them from the Old Lady and 12 being from the Nerazzurri. The average number of goals per game works out to 2.27.
Hakan Calhanoglu was the loan scorer when these two sides last met last month
The previous league match featuring the two was the Serie A matchday 31 on April 4th which finished with the scoreline of Inter Milan 1-0 Juventus. In that game, Inter had 46% possession and 3 shots on goal with 1 of them on target. Their only player on the scoresheet was Hakan Calhanoglu (45+5′) who scored the lone goal of the game via penalty. At the other end, Villarreal had 16 shots at goal with 5 of them on target.
Team News
Juve’s injury crisis continues, with both Danilo and Luca Pellegrini potentially ruled out for Wednesday’s match. The Bianconeri treatment room is already full with the likes of Federico Chiesa, Weston Mckennie, Manuel Locatelli and Kaio Jorge. Fortunately for Allegri, he was able to welcome back Juan Cuadrado last weekend, who may be fielded on the wing to provide defensive cover.
Alessandro Bastoni is the only injury doubt for the final, with the centre-back position likely to be filled by Federico Dimarco. Simone Inzaghi is not expected to make any changes to the starting XI that won at Empoli last weekend, although he may be tempted to hand Alexis Sanchez a start after the Chilean scored from the bench both last weekend and against Juve in January’s Supercoppa.
Predicted Starting XIs
Juventus (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczesny; Danilo Luiz, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthijs De Ligt, Alex Sandro; Arthur Melo, Fabio Miretti, Adrien Rabiot; Juan Cuadrado, Dusan Vlahovic, Alvaro Morata
Inter Milan (3-5-2): Samir Handanovic; Milan Skriniar, Stefan De Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Marcelo Brozovic, Hakan Calhanoglu, Ivan Perisic; Joaquin Correa, Lautaro Martinez
Prediction
There is a serious chance that, for the first time since 2010, Juventus finish the season without silverware. The Old Lady were defeated by Inter Milan in the Supercoppa Italiana and they won’t win the Serie A title, as well as their Round of 16 elimination in the UEFA Champions League.
Juve has been strong in the second half of the season, albeit dull. Inter Milan’s focus will be on defending their title. Simone Inzaghi’s side is in a fascinating and enthralling race for the Scudetto alongside their city rivals, AC Milan.
The Nerazzurri were very impressive in the first half of the season before slipping in games quite regularly. Juventus always win a trophy and given the fact that Inter may well be distracted by the league, the Turin club winning in a low-scoring encounter in Rome seems likely.
