Inter vs Tottenham preview

March 13, 2013
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Tottenham vs InterInter clearly face a mountain to climb after the 3-0 defeat at White Hart Lane, and weekend’s defeat to Bologna did nothing to ease their worries.

Tottenham may be arriving in Milan without Gareth Bale, but they are, nonetheless, huge favourites to make it to the next round.

With Inter squad decimated by injuries, Andrea Stramaccioni’s decision to rest key attackers Rodrigo Palacio and Fredy Guarin in the first leg came back to haunt him as Tottenham completely outclassed his side and recorded a deserved 3-0 victory.

Home defeat to Bologna in Serie A poured more misery on the Neroazzurri, who are quickly seeing what looked like a promising season turning into a big failure.

As a result, the hosts are in desperate need of a morale-boosting win, and they are now 2.40 (7/5) at Stan James to return to winning ways.

Even if Tottenham will be weakened at Giuseppe Meazza, it is not realistic to expect Inter can overturn a three-goal deficit given their current form, and William Hill seem to agree, paying 17.00 (16/1) on Inter to qualify.

Andrea Stramaccioni is hoping key defender Andrea Ranocchia will be fit to play despite breaking his nose at the weekend, but Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Ezequiel Schelotto and Tommaso Rocchi are all cup-tied.

Diego Milito, Walter Samuel, Yuto Nagatomo, Matias Silvestre, Ricky Alvarez, Joel Obi and Gaby Mudingayi are out injured.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-1-2): Handanovic – Zanetti, Ranocchia, Juan, Pereira – Kovacic, Gargano, Cambiasso – Guarin – Palacio, Cassano.

Tottenham produced a stunning attacking display in the first leg to make a giant step towards the next round, and all that’s left now is for Spurs to finish the job at Giuseppe Meazza.

Team’s impressive run of results came to an end as they suffered an unfortunate defeat at Anfield, meaning a good result in Italy would see the players restore some of the lost confidence.

Andre Villas-Boas might be tempted to rest some of his starters after such a good result in the first leg, but numerous selection problems are seriously restricting his options.

Red-hot Gareth Bale misses out through suspension, whilst Aaron Lennon, Emmanuel Adebayor and Clint Dempsey are all injury doubts.

Tom Huddlestone is back in contention, but Sandro and Younes Kaboul are not yet ready to return into action.

In spite of all the problems, Tottenham look a good bet to win this game, at odds of 3.20 (9/4) offered at bet365.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Friedel – Walker, Dawson, Gallas, Naughton – Livermore, Parker – Dembele, Holtby, Sigurdsson – Defoe.

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