Porto vs Inter Champions League round of 16 preview: kick-off time, predicted line-ups

What UEFA SAYS:

Porto needed extra time to eliminate Roma and Juventus at this stage of the competition in 2018/19 and 2020/21 respectively. If the first leg at San Siro was anything to go by, an additional 30 minutes may be required to separate the two teams on this occasion. The Dragons showed more than enough to suggest they are capable of troubling the Nerazzurri, who needed a late Romelu Lukaku goal to take the lead in the tie, in the partisan atmosphere of the Estádio do Dragão.Information Guide Nigeria

Predicted line-ups

Porto: Diogo Costa; Pepê, Pepe, Marcano, Zaidu; Grujić, Uribe, Eustáquio, Galeno; Taremi, Toni Martínez
Suspended: Otávio
Misses next match if booked: Pepê

Inter: Onana; Škriniar, Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian, Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Martínez, Lukaku
Misses next match if booked: Bastoni, Martínez, Dimarco

Form guide

Porto
Form (all competitions, most recent first): WWLLWW
Where they stand: 2nd in Liga, Portuguese Cup semi-finals, Portuguese League Cup winners

Inter
Form (all competitions, most recent first): LWLWWD
Where they stand: 2nd in Serie A, Coppa Italia semi-finals

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Expert predictions

Nuno Tavares, Porto reporter
Porto have been plagued by injuries in recent times but Sérgio Conceição will be particularly worried about how to approach the second leg against Inter without his most influential player Otávio, who is suspended for the decider at the Dragão, and it remains to be seen how the Portuguese champions will cope with his absence. The recent home defeat against Gil Vicente was a major blow in the Portuguese title race and you get the feeling that the Champions League is now the club’s main target. But if Porto want to emulate their 2003/04 dream campaign they will need Mehdi Taremi to rediscover his goalscoring abilities: the Iranian has found the net only twice in his 11 last outings.

Paolo Menicucci, Inter reporter
Ahead of the first leg, I wrote that it was impossible to predict which version of Inter we would see. The same can be said now as Inter lost against Bologna just a few days after beating Porto, continuing their rollercoaster campaign in which they have been beaten in seven games in Serie A this season. Lautaro Martínez, however, continues to fly after winning the World Cup with Argentina and has already scored nine goals in all competitions for the Nerazzurri in 2023.NYSC Portal

What the coaches say

Sérgio Conceição, Porto coach: “It will be a balanced match, very difficult, against a team full of good players. We know our opponent but above all we know what we are capable of. We want to be intense, good at pressing, aggressive and, above all, intelligent. In these top-level matches we have to play the way we know, the way we feel most comfortable. We have 90 minutes to try to overturn the result but to do that we will have to be smart throughout the match. It will be important not to go on the attack, we will need to be patient and with the right aggression.”

Simone Inzaghi, Inter coach: “We want to give it a go in the best possible way. We can take a big leap forward. Inter have reached the round of 16 twice in a row, something which hasn’t happened for ten years. Now we want to improve: we work every day to do that. The first half was at San Siro, now the second half is even more difficult and exciting.”JAMB Result