The game of the weekend in Italy takes place on Sunday night in Turin as Juventus host Inter in the Derby d'Italia. Ciro Di Baselli now gives us five reasons he believes the Nerazzurri can cause an upset

1.  Mauro Icardi: 

The Argentine hitman has an extraordinary scoring record against The Old lady, having scored 7 goals in his last 8 games against them. Sunday’s titanic Derby d’Italia takes place at the Juventus Stadium, were Icardi famously scored a brace in 2013 whilst playing for Sampdoria, inflicting on Juventus only their second ever defeat at the stadium since its construction.

In the reverse fixture at the San Siro earlier on in the season, Icardi scored a fine header during the  and also provided the winning assist; all this coming whilst Frank De Boer was still in charge and now with a vastly improved supporting cast under Stefano Pioli, Icardi’s goals will be a key reason while the Nerazzurri can do the double over their bitter rivals.

 

After a woeful start to the current campaign, Inter’s recent improvement is nothing short of remarkable, sitting just three points from third and the hugely coveted final Champions League place. 

 

Inter have not played in Europe’s premier club competition since 2012 and after looking like they would be missing out on European football altogether, Stefano Pioli has managed to propel them up the table to return to within touching distance. The players, who many deserve to be playing in the Champions League, will be looking at the table knowing that victory will put them even closer to their dream. That incentive alone will give them an unstoppable drive and combined with the fact it’s the Derby d’Italia, there’s everything to play for. 

 

Following the midweek Coppa Italia exit to Lazio, doing the double over Juve and achieving Champions League qualification has become that much more important. Motivation will be sky high after the hard fought defeat, which was ultimately decided by a penalty. Inter know a victory in Turin will go some way to erasing that narrow loss and prove their winning streak in the league is no fluke.


 

Just like in the previous two Derby d’Italia’s, Inter are the underdogs. The Bianconeri will be favourites again to get the win on home soil and their fans will be expecting as such. However the Nerazzurri have shown this season that they don’t mind the underdog tag at all, winning games and defying the odds to leap up the table to 4th place, when all expected them to self-destruct and fall deeper into chaos. 

 

Having not won this fixture since 2012, Inter have won the last two in 2016, one of which was a 3-0 victory in the Coppa Italia (which later resulted in a defeat on penalties). Juventus will be heading into the clash well aware of this and their players will be under heavy pressure not to go down for a third time in a row. Inter on the other hand, will be going in with less pressure but much more motivation as they have more incentive at this stage of the season, knowing that doing the double of their rivals is one of the last remaining things they can do to keep the fans and the club happy.