Les Dogues will have too much bite for Inter Milan at the San Siro on Wednesday
There’s no doubt that the Champions League group matches being played on Wednesday night have a more competitive look compared to those the day before, and one of the tightest games may be at the San Siro where Inter Milan, winners of this tournament in 2009/10, play host to French side Lille.
Going into this match the French champions have yet to record a victory in Group B, but there’s is certainly cause for optimism for the visitors. Indeed, Inter currently lead the group with six points, but with CSKA and Trabzonspor both on four, just two points in advance of Lille, Rudi Garcia’s men are still in with a good shout of progressing to the next phase of the competition.
Admittedly, Lille have only managed to win one of their last eight in the Champions League, but by the same token the Nerazzurri have only prevailed in two of their last seven competitive matches against French opposition, while Claudio Ranieri’s charges have lost all three Champions League home games so far this season.
Garcia will have no doubt been hugely disappointed by the fact that his side were beaten 1-0 by the Beneamata in the first leg. However, Les Dogues, who will likely count Joe Cole amongst their starting XI, will be buoyed by the fact that the last time they visited the Giuseppe Meazza they pulled off a shock victory over Inter’s co-habitants AC Milan during the 2006/7 campaign.
Inter also incurred a dent to their confidence during the weekend when bitter rivals Juventus beat them in the San Siro, a result which leaves them languishing in seventeenth place in Serie A. Looking at it objectively, I reckon Lille are good value at 4.33 in the full time result market (a price available with Boylesports and Ladbrokes at the time of writing).