The Italian football team Inter Milan, the vice-champion of Europe, has a match against Borussia Dortmund in Germany on Wednesday evening. The match is played from 22:00 on Digi 2 and Prima 2.
With a happy situation in Serie A, where they are five points ahead of AC Milan, Cristi Chivu’s Inter have two easy league games on the horizon, with Cremonese and Sassuolo, which can strengthen their advantage. But the big challenge is to right the Milan ship in Europe. Kicked out of the Top 8 in the Champions League group standings by three defeats in a row, the European vice-champion is trying tonight, against Borussia Dortmund, to secure a place in the round of 16, without having to go through the play-offs, that is, to add two more games to their already loaded schedule.
Approachable opponents
Inter had a perfect stage in the championship at the end of the week. After Napoli, defeated in Turin by Juventus, AC Milan was also blocked (only draw with AS Roma). A five-point lead over their city rivals isn’t a decisive difference with 48 points still to play for, but it gives a strong indication. Inter’s players have been telling themselves for weeks that an opportunity to extend their lead will come in January and February. Next Sunday, Inter plays away to Cremonese, a team in obvious decline (three points in the last eight matches, the last win being on December 7, against Lecce). Then, in the month of the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, with Chivu carrying the torch, apart from the big match at the ‘San Siro’ against Juventus on February 15, Inter will face Sassuolo and Lecce.
Collect 90 points in the championship?
Inter have been at a frenetic pace since the third leg, i.e., the extra-time defeat in Turin against Juve: an average of 2.57 points in the next 19 games, that is a whole tour. At this pace, he can easily surpass the 90-point mark (there are 16 matches left to play in Serie A). Excluding last June’s Club World Cup, which cut short their summer preparations, Inter have already played 31 games this season and are still in contention on all three fronts. Unlike AC Milan, their closest rivals, who can focus all their energy exclusively on the championship. Inter will conclude their Champions League group stage matches today. If it goes badly, the first leg of the play-offs would take place immediately after the match against Juventus. In the joint business plan with the club, qualifying for the second phase of the Champions League is an explicit objective, especially for the 11 million euros it would bring to the already existing income.
Istvan Kovacs whistled
The Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs was delegated to conduct the match that Inter Milan will play in Dortmund, in the last stage of the main phase of the Champions League, informs the official website of the FRF. The “Central” from Carei will be helped by the assistants Mihai Marica and Ferencz Tunyogi and the reserve Szabolcs Kovacs. In the VAR room will be Rob Dieperink (Netherlands) and Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Poland). After 7 rounds, Borussia Dortmund is 16th with 11 points, while Inter, coached by Cristian Chivu, is 14th with 12 points. According to the format inaugurated in the last edition, the teams ranked in the first 8 places will progress directly to the round of 16, while the teams in places 9-24 will compete in a play-off. For Istvan Kovacs, 41 years old, this will be the fifth match refereed in the main phase of the Champions League, 2025-2026 edition, after Olympiakos Piraeus – FC Pafos 0-0 (September 17, 2025), Villarreal – Juventus 2-2 (October 1), Liverpool – Real Madrid 1-0 (November 4, 2025) and Galatasaray – Atletico Madrid 1-1 (January 21, 2026). He refereed last season’s League final, PSG – Inter 5-0.
“Now it’s not just up to us”
Cristian Chivu spoke on Tuesday evening in the press conference room at the Signal Iduna Park arena: “We want to be competitive, we work to grow and raise our level. We have to accept that we are 14th in the Champions League. We had higher expectations in the Champions League. Our goal was to finish in the top eight, now it’s not just up to us. We will have to be ready to face anything. We are not afraid“.
About the European campaign, with three failures in a row in the last games, Chivu pointed out: “We lost games where we deserved more, like against Atlético Madrid and Liverpool. It’s true, we haven’t achieved much, but this team has grown a lot mentally in the last two months. Perfect seasons don’t exist, we have to improve and correct the little mistakes“.
