Revived Inter made a giant step towards European qualification with an impressive triumph at Artemio Franchi and they will fancy their chances of extending the good run against out-of-sorts Cagliari. Isolani slipped further towards the bottom three as they were beaten by relegation rivals Livorno, meaning the confidence is low ahead of the trip to Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

The Hernanes effect

Despite starting the season in style, Inter experienced plenty of problems at the turn of the year, with a six-match winless run in all competitions seriously threatening to ruin their season. The club chiefs were obviously well aware that the squad are good enough to turn things around, but they, nonetheless, decided to help Walter Mazzarri by handing him two of league’s most sought-after players Danilo D’Ambrosio and Hernanes. And while the potential Italy international has yet to prove his worth at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, the Brazilian midfielder has already shown he will be a great signing for the Nerazzurri. He was running the show as Inter ended the poor run with a triumph over Sassuolo, setting up the winner for Walter Samuel before producing another great performance as Walter Mazzarri’s charges completely outclassed one of league’s best sides at Artemio Franchi. And with the excellent performances in the last two matches enough to suggest Inter have turned things around, the Nerazzurri should have no problems keeping the rich vein of form against struggling Cagliari.

Ricky Alvarez and Hernanes are both injury doubts, but Esteban Cambiasso, Mateo Kovacic and Yuto Nagatomo are back in contention.

More worries for Isolani

This has been a nightmare season for Cagliari, who find themselves in the danger zone despite clearly possessing the quality to stay up. However, given that even much better teams than Isolani have been known to get relegated to Serie B, Diego Lopez’s side will quickly need to kick-start their season if they want to avoid the drop. The good news is Cagliari still sit five points above the bottom three, but their latest performances are definitely a cause for concern. Isolani have now won just one of last nine matches in the league and lost five of last six. And while defeats to Italy’s top sides were hardly surprising, weekend’s home loss to struggling Livorno has got to be considered the lowest point of the season. With that in mind, this is clearly a bad time to be facing revived Inter, especially given Cagliari’s dismal away record. Isolani have so far picked up just 5 points from 11 away fixtures, scoring mere 4 goals in the process, so it is more than clear they face an uphill task at Giuseppe Meazza.

Key midfielder Daniele Conti starts a two-match ban, while Francesco Pisano is out injured. The good news is Davide Astori should return.

Verdict

Inter have seriously raised their form of late and having created so many goalscoring opportunities at Fiorentina, surely they can do the same when they host sorry Cagliari. Isolani are completely out of confidence at the moment and after scoring just four goals in eleven away fixtures, they don’t look they can stop the Nerazzurri in their tracks.

Top pick: Inter/Inter   2.20 (6/5) @ Paddy Power

Alternative pick 1: Inter with -1.5 Asian handicap   2.28 (32/25) @ BetVictor

Alternative pick 2: Inter to win to nil   2.25 (5/4) @ Coral