UEFA Champions League Preview: LOSC Lille Vs Inter Milan
Stade Lille Metropole, France will see reigning French Ligue 1 champions LOSC Lille play host to Italian Serie A giants Inter Milan in their third game of this season’s UEFA Champions League group stages.
Wary against ‘prolific’ champions
In the wake of Inter Milan’s worst start to the season in nearly 28 years, manager Claudio Ranieri has asked him side to be wary of a ‘prolific’ Lille side that could give any team in Europe a run for their money.
The Italian tactician believes that his side would be up against the “most prolific” team in the French Ligue 1 and is looking forward to a great open game between the two sides in the Group B encounter.
Les Dogues
Lille managed to defeat http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 to fourth place in the Ligue 1 standings and Les Dogues are chasing leaders Paris Saint-Germain
by a mere four points.
However, Rudi Garcia feels that the win against Auxerre was an improved performance ahead of such a big European night when they face the Italian giants.
“We could not have asked for a better result at Auxerre in order to prepare for our game against Inter,” said Garcia while talking to
http://www.losc.fr/. With Lille drawing both their opening games in the Champions League, Garcia is targeting their first victory of the campaign at the expense of the Milan giants.
In their opening two games, Les Dogues were held to 2-2 and 1-1 draws by CSKA Moscow and Turkish side Trabzonspor respectively.
Warning signs for Internazionale
For 28 years, the Inter faithful have not seen their side perform so woefully. After a poor start to the campaign, Gasperini was sacked and was replaced with Claudio Ranieri. The former AS http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roma-c31603 man has somewhat steadied the sinking ship but knows that he
has a lot of work to do in order to stage a recovery for the 2009/2010 Champions League winners.
On Saturday, Inter lost 2-1 to Catania which means that they chase leaders Juventus by eight points. While talking to
http://www.inter.it/, Ranieri admitted that no one at the club is happy at what’s happening and players want to get past this tricky situation.
In their last Champions League encounter, Nerazzurri won 3-2 at CSKA Moscow which was a good respite for the side that surprisingly lost 1-0 to Turkish minnows http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Trabzonspor-c40759.
With the worst defensive record in Serie A, Inter Milan will need to be wary of the defensive threat posed by Lille with the likes of Moussa Sow, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dimitri-Payet-c11276.
Team News
LOSC Lille
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Senegal-c3001 international will feature in the crunch game along with Dimitri Payet who has just comeback from an injury.
Inter Milan
Following a three-week layoff, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Walter-Samuel-c36618 and Coutinho.
Prediction
With http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 Milan defence finding it hard to stop opponents from scoring, Les Dogues attack would certainly test an ailing Inter defence to the limits.
Predicted final score: Lille 2-1 Inter Milan
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