Inter Stats | Inter vs. Crotone

Milan - The first match of the year for Inter takes place on Sunday 3 January at 12:30 CET against Crotone at San Siro, in the 15th matchday of Serie A.

PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN INTER AND CROTONE

There have only been four previous meetings between Inter and Crotone, all in Serie A. The records show two wins for Inter, one draw and one defeat. The first of these encounters dates back to November 2016, a 3-0 victory at San Siro for the Nerazzurri. In the same season, Crotone won 2-1 in the reverse fixture. The other two matches took place during the following campaign: a 2-0 victory on the road for the Nerazzurri (Skriniar and Perisic scoring the two goals against the Calabrians and a 1-1 draw at San Siro.

FUN FACT: ALEX CORDAZ’S ONE AND ONLY NERAZZURRI APPEARANCE

He made one sole appearance in Inter colours, and it came in a big showdown. Alex Cordaz is the goalkeeper and captain of Crotone. Born in 1983, he was part of the Nerazzurri’s youth setup from 1999 to 2002. The shot-stopper’s only first-team appearance came on 4 February 2004 in the Coppa Italia: he took to the field 18 minutes into the second half against Juventus in Turin after Toldo had been sent off. It was the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final and Recoba was the man to make way for Cordaz, who then conceded an equaliser in a match that finished 2-2 (two for Adriano, two for Di Vaio).

Cordaz has worn the Crotone jersey since 2015.

FORM AND STATISTICS

Inter are on a winning streak in the league: seven in a row now in Serie A, accumulating 21 points in the last seven outings, putting them at 33 total points in the league, one behind AC Milan.

Stroppa’s Crotone have had a complicated start to the league but have managed to pick themselves up again: they sit on nine points in the league, with two wins and three draws. Their two wins have come in their last four matches (seven points in total from these four games), a decisive and important changing of the gears for them. In their final match of 2020, Stroppa’s men beat Parma 2-1 thanks to a brace from Messias.

PLAYER FOCUS

Romelu Lukaku will make his 50th appearance in Serie A this weekend, who has scored a total of 34 goals and provided four assists in his 3,946 minutes of playing in the competition. Only five players have scored more goals than the Belgian in their first 50 Serie A appearances, two being Nerazzurri: Diego Milito (37) and Ronaldo (38).

Junior Messias is the top scorer for Crotone with five goals under his belt, two home braces and one goal on the road. The Brazilian forward has scored more than a third of their total goals, and along with Simy in the cup this extends to 75% of the goals scored by Stroppa’s team.

SUSPENSIONS AND CAUTIONS

Inter: Brozovic is cautioned

Crotone: -