After being taken over by Indonesian business tycoon, Erick Thohir, Inter will be looking to impress their new owner on Sunday night, when they face Torino in the Stadio Olimpico. Ahead of the fixture, youngster Mateo Kovacic has expressed his desire to win for his new employer: "We would like to give Thohir his first victory at Inter."
Inter suffered their first defeat of the season during the last round of fixtures, in spite of this however, coach Walter Mazzarri stated that the 2-0 defeat at the hands of table toppers, A.S. Roma, had its positive points:
"Although it was the first defeat of my tenure as Inter coach, we saw a positive performance from the players."
"We paid the price for one or two costly errors, but their were positive signs during the game also. The team has a lot of work to do and has room to improve, but at the moment we are playing well and that is the important thing."
Speaking ahead of their trip to the Stadio Olimpico, Mazzarri has singled out in-form Alessio Cerci, as someone who has the potential to cause his side problems:
"It will be another difficult game for us at a venue known for it's great atmosphere and passionate fans. Torino are a well organised team who deserve to be higher up the table than they currently are."
"They have some great individual talents like Alessio Cerci, but we must be wary of the whole team, as they play good football."
Torino were held 2-2 by Sampdoria during the last round of fixtures, but the aforementioned Alessio Cerci still believes that an upset is possible:
"We have dropped a lot of points during the final minutes of games this season, if we didn't we would be much higher up in the table. We deserved more on a lot of occasions, but now we are facing a great team like Inter, whom we must remain concentrated against for the whole 90 minutes in order to get a positive result."
During his pre-match press conference, Toro coach Giampiero Ventura, also alluded to his side's late lapses of concentration:
"We've taken a look at the mistakes which led to us conceding late on in recent weeks, and we hope that this week we can eradicate them."
"The way we set up will depend on how Inter set up. They are a typical Mazzarri team, who are very dangerous when space is made available to them. The coach has made a big difference this season, as he has brought a great work ethic to his team."
Team News:
Torino - Berni, Gomis, Padelli; D’Ambrosio, Darmian, Maksimovic, Masiello, Moretti, Pasquale, Scaglia; Bellomo, Brighi, Farnerud, Gazzi, Vives; Barreto, Cerci, Immobile, Meggiorini.
Inter - Handanovic, Castellazzi, Carrizo; Jonathan, Juan Jesus, Andreolli, Wallace, Ranocchia, Samuel, Pereira, Rolando, Donkor, Nagatomo; Kovacic, Guarin, Mudingayi, Kuzmanovic, Cambiasso, Taider, Olsen; Belfodil, Palacio, Icardi.