Serie A leaders Inter are looking to get to the final of the Coppa Italia this season, but the first hurdle is Wednesday's match at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium against Napoli, the first leg of the semi-final tie. The two sides have met in the league in Naples in January and Inter won the match 3-1 with a first-half double from Romelu Lukaku and a second-half goal from Lautaro Martinez. The last six direct matches produced a perfectly balanced record with two victories for each side and two draws.
Inter are undefeated in their last ten matches in all competitions and should be extremely confident after last weekend, when they fought back from 2-0 down to defeat A.C. Milan in the Derby della Madonnina. That result pushed the Nerazzurri back to the top of the table, tied on points with Serie A title holders Juventus. Head coach Antonio Conte doesn't have any injury concerns ahead of this match but he will most likely choose to rotate a few players. Lautaro Martinez missed the last two league matches through suspension but he should return to the starting eleven in this match.
Napoli have no realistic chance of achieving anything remarkable in the Serie A this season, especially after last week's 3-2 home defeat against Lecce. They are 11th in the league table now, 12 points behind fourth-placed Atalanta, and 11 away from the relegation zone. The Italian Cup would be a good chance for them to rescue something from this campaign, but they would need to pull off at least a few remarkable performances to get the trophy. Elseid Hysaj is the only absence for the visitors, he is suspended for this match.
Probable line-ups:
Inter: Padelli - Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni - Moses, Barella, Brozovic, Eriksen, Biraghi - Sanchez, Martinez
Napoli: Ospina - Lorenzo, Manolas, Maksimovic, Rui - Allan, Demme, Zielinski - Callejon, Mertens, Insigne
My prediction:
Napoli are capable of pulling off an upset in this tie, and with Inter more focused on the Serie A I think we could see a 1-1 draw in this match.
Here are the odds for this match at NetBet:
Inter win - 2.05
Draw - 3.50
Napoli win - 3.60
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