Managerless Inter Milan travel to England to face Southampton on Thursday in a match that could decide which teams qualify from Europa League Group K. Inter won the previous meeting 1-0 at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, with Antonio Candreva scoring the only goal of the match. Inter have not won a European match in England since 2010, when they secured a 1-0 Champions League victory at Chelsea thanks to a goal from former Blues striker Samuel Eto'o.
Southampton won just one of their last four matches, and that was the League Cup win over Sunderland. It's true that they faced very tough opponents in the Premier League lately, securing a draw at Manchester City and losing 2-0 at home to Chelsea last week. Their chances of progressing to the next phase of the Europa League are pretty good at the moment as the Saints are just two points behind group leaders Sparta Prague, but if they don't win against Inter, things could get quite complicated. Cedric Soares, Jeremy Pied, Florin Gardos and Matt Targett are injured.
Inter had secured their first Europa League win of the season two weeks ago against Southampton, but since then they lost two out of three Serie A matches and head coach Frank De Boer got sacked as a result. They have not won an away match in any competition since September. Marcelo Brozovic was sent off in the previous match against the Saints so he is suspended for this game, while Felipe Melo is injured. Big names like Geoffrey Kondogbia, Joao Mario, Stevan Jovetic and Gabriel Barbosa have not been included in the Europa League squad at the start of the season, so they are ineligible until the next phase of the competition.
Probable line-ups:
Southampton: Forster - Martina, Fonte, Van Dijk, Bertrand - Hojbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse - Tadic - Austin, Boufal
Inter: Handanovic - Santon, Miranda, Murillo, Nagatomo - Gnoukouri, Medel, Banega - Candreva, Icardi, Eder
My prediction: Southampton to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Southampton win - 1.73
Draw - 3.80
Inter win - 5.50
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