Probable Formations: Inter Milan vs. Roma

As Roma travel to the San Siro to face top of the table Inter, Paulo Fonseca will be breathing a big sigh of relief. Fonseca will be able to deploy his preferred center back duo of Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini after all. It was initially thought that Mancini would be suspended for this one due to yellow card accumulation, but because two of those cards came in one match and equated to a red, Mancini has one more card to go before suspension.

In addition to having Mancini at his disposal, Fonseca also gets back Nicoló Zaniolo from his own yellow card suspension. However, missing out on this one will be long-term absentees Bryan Cristante and Davide Zappacosta. Meanwhile, Justin Kluivert and Javier Pastore’s statuses for this one are still up in the air, but both are unlikely to play. Meanwhile, Edin Dzeko missed Tuesday’s training with the flu, but is expected to be ready for Friday.

A handful of changes are expected from the side that defeated Hellas in Verona on Sunday. Three-fourths of the defense in front of Pau Lopez will remain unchanged with Mancini, Smalling and Aleksandar Kolarov, but Leonardo Spinazzola is expected to replace Davide Santon at right back.

The midfield double pivot of Jordan Veretout and Amadou Diawara remains intact. Edin Dzeko will again lead the attack with Lorenzo Pellegrini pulling the strings behind him. The other two changes will be on the wings where Zaniolo and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are expected to replace Cengiz Ünder and Kluivert.

For its part, Inter will be without starting midfielders Stefano Sensi and Nicoló Barella. Reserve midfielder Roberto Gagliardini was also ruled out for this one. Additionally, Alexis Sanchez remains out.

Gazzetta dello Sport