Inter – Fiorentina

Should we expect the teams to trade goals?

Inter played an extremely difficult match on Wednesday. The Nerazzurri hosted Shakhtar Donetsk at the Giuseppe Meazza in the Champions League. The hosts started the game as befits a favorite. However, the Snakes' attacks did not create any real danger. The Ukrainians leveled the game and even had several decent chances. A new twist came in the 68th minute, when Bastoni was sent off. It seemed the match was heading for a draw, but in the 77th minute Carlos Augusto secured three points for his team. The player scored from a pass by the recently introduced Henrikh Mkhitaryan. In the previous league round, Christian Chivu's team dealt with Bologna quite easily. The Rossoblu, however, took the lead in the tenth minute. The Snakes equalized near the end of the first half and scored twice more after the break. A comeback victory. Fiorentina have lost two rounds in a row. Last Sunday, the Lilies hosted Como. The Biancoblu had already scored twice by the 36th minute. Before the end of the first half, Pongracic managed to pull one goal back, while his second goal was disallowed after VAR intervention. The Florence side could not find the strength to stage a comeback. At the beginning of the second half, Douvikas scored his team's third and final goal of the match. In the previous round, Paolo Vanoli's team lost to Genoa 2–1. The clubs last met in March this year. A high-scoring 1–1 draw was recorded at the Artemio Franchi. Ndour replied in the second half to Esposito's early goal. This season, the Lilies have been conceding a great deal. In seven rounds, the Florence side have conceded 17 goals. The xG metric suggests that the Lilies could have scored 3.2 more goals. Interestingly, despite scoring 21 goals, Inter still have a slight shortfall according to the xG metric. It is worth noting that Fiorentina have exchanged goals in each of their last five league matches. Interestingly, Inter have done so in four of their last five rounds. In Serie A, Christian Chivu's team have kept a clean sheet only against struggling Parma. The Snakes' defensive lapses are evidently compensated for by their attacking strength. The Lilies may well take advantage of their opponents' fatigue. Moreover, Chivu will most likely rotate his squad. A both-teams-to-score outcome can reasonably be expected at the Giuseppe Meazza.