Inter vs Lazio prediction: ITALY: Super Cup betting tips on match 2024-01-18 19:00.
Back-to-back Italian Super Cup winners Inter Milan return to Saudi Arabia – where they celebrated their 2022 title a year ago – after a commanding 5-1 win over Monza on Saturday saw them strengthen their grip on the Serie A summit. The Nerazzurri have lost just one of their last 20 competitive matches since late September (W14, D5), and remain the prime candidates for another piece of silverware.
For the first time ever, Inter will need to win two matches to bring home another Super Cup trophy thanks to a change in format. But Simone Inzaghi’s men are bound to be confident having won three of the last four H2Hs against Lazio (L1), and they’ll be looking to extend that run with the most fearsome frontline in Italy’s top-flight which has netted a comfortable league-high 49 times in Serie A this term.
However, they could be running into Lazio at a bad time as Maurizio Sarri’s men continue their resurgence, arriving here on the back of five successive victories. That includes knocking arch-rivals Roma out of the Coppa Italia last week, while they’ve also moved to within a point of the top-four in Serie A after a 1-0 win over Lecce made it back-to-back wins ‘to nil’ for the first time since April.
There are plenty of reasons to be positive then, but Sarri evidently isn’t happy with their regular season being interrupted by a trip to the Middle East, describing the new format as “anything but sport, we just take the money and run.” The raging Lazio boss may find some motivation as he tries to avenge losing the 2019 Super Cup title back in 2019 while in charge of Juventus to none other than Lazio!
Players to watch: The irrepressible Lautaro Martínez scored twice against Monza, taking his Serie A tally to 18 goals from as many appearances, while he also netted in both previous Super Cup finals for Inter. Felipe Anderson netted the winner against Lecce and also opened the scoring before half-time in Lazio’s most recent H2H victory.
Hot stat: No team in Europe’s traditional top-five leagues has scored more goals from penalties than Inter this term (nine).