Marotta: ‘Inter positive approach to Arsenal, difficult to predict’

Inter President Beppe Marotta notes the Champions League is ‘difficult to predict’ ahead of tonight’s showdown with Arsenal, and reiterates there won’t be big signings.

It kicks off at San Siro at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and FC Copenhagen vs. Napoli on the Liveblog.

The Nerazzurri are top of the Serie A table, but resume their Champions League campaign after winning the opening four fixtures, then losing to Atletico Madrid and Liverpool.

They are still in the top eight and therefore with direct access to the Round of 16, but tonight they host the only team with a perfect record in the tournament so far this season.

“This is a strange format, so it becomes difficult to make predictions, as there are so many teams crammed together in a few points,” Marotta told Sky Sport Italia.

“We are also seeing some shocking results, including a few taking place already today with Manchester City losing to Bodo/Glimt. We know that we want to play a positive game, then hope to bring home an equally positive result.”

Inter have been criticised this term for failing to win the ‘big’ games and this is their toughest test yet.

Hakan Calhanoglu, Denzel Dumfries and Raffaele Di Gennaro are out of action this evening, but Francesco Acerbi starts along with Petar Sucic, while Luis Henrique continues on the right.

“The transfer window doesn’t provide many opportunities that can help us to improve the quality level of the existing squad. We are constantly monitoring the horizon, but have seen little so far.

“We’ll see what happens over the next few days, but we are not obliged to act, as Dumfries is speeding up the recovery process and will be back with us soon enough.”

In a curious twist, Dinamo Zagreb President Zvonimir Boban was in the Sky Sport Italia studio, so both confirmed negotiations are progressing for 18-year-old defender Leon Jakirovic.

“Dinamo Zagreb always have very interesting players. My colleagues have certainly made an approach, we’d be very happy to welcome this young player to our Under-23 team,” smiled Marotta.

“We picked up Sucic from them and are very happy with him, so we’re very optimistic.”