With Roma having the chance to leapfrog Inter Milan into second-place with victory at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday (kick-off: 12:30 CET), we have all the pre-match prep you need...

INTER MILAN

League position: 2nd
Head coach: Antonio Conte
Serie A top-scorer: Romelu Lukaku (12)

RECENT FORM

Inter: W W W W L
Roma: W L W W W

Both sides head into Matchday 17 having lost just one of their previous five league matches, with Inter’s the most recent of their defeats after succumbing to a 2-1 loss at Sampdoria in midweek.

That ended an 11-game unbeaten run for Conte’s men (W9, D2), but Juventus’ 3-1 victory over Inter’s city rivals AC Milan means the Nerazzurri are still just a point off the latter at the top of the table.

Roma, meanwhile, are unbeaten in their last 12 Serie A outings at the Olimpico (W9 D3) - their longest streak since going 24 home games unbeaten in 2017 - and are just three points back from Inter and four behind AC.

If the Giallorossi were to claim all three points on Sunday afternoon, they would move above Inter by virtue of the better head-to-head record they’d claim in the process.

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Arturo Vidal

Yes, Lukaku (12 goals) and Lautaro Martinez (nine) have been red-hot in delivering 21 Serie A goals between them this term and they will need Roma's full attention on Sunday, but the battle could well be won and lost in midfield and Vidal has a good record against the Giallorossi.

The Chilean pitbull - who is pushing for a return to the starting lineup after being used sparingly in recent weeks - has scored 23% of his Serie A goals against capital clubs: four versus both Roma and Lazio, totalling eight of his 35 strikes.

A somewhat devisive figure among Inter fans since his return in the summer, a few further ups-and-downs recently will have surely left the combative midfielder eager to make a positive impression in one of the biggest games of the season so far.

Given that Lukaku has just one goal against Roma previously - a late penalty the last time they met - and the fact Martinez hasn’t found the back of the net at all in four meetings with the Giallorossi, Vidal may think he has the track record to impose himself on this fixture.

MATCH STATS

The last five meetings between these two teams have all ended in draws, the longest such sequence in Serie A since Napoli and Torino finally ended a run of six draws on the spin in 1995.

Inter were the last to claim victory from this fixture with a 3-1 win at the Olimpico in August 2017 that was preceded by Roma doing the double over the men from Milan in 2016-17.

That Inter win in the capital is the only time in their last 11 trips to the Olimpico that they’ve returned north with all three points, with five Roma wins and five more draws played out over the remaining 10 games.

This game has produced more goals than any other fixture in Serie A history, with a total of 503 goals in 174 games - of which Roma have won 49, Inter 72 and there have been 53 draws.

PLAYER STATS

• Edin Dzeko has been directly involved in at least one goal in six of his nine appearances against Inter in Serie A (two goals, five assists), including two assists in July’s 2-2 draw.
  
• No player has been involved in more goals than Henrikh Mkhitaryan (15; eight goals, seven assists) in Italy’s top-flight so far this season.
  
• Since he joined Roma in 2017, Aleksandar Kolarov (who joined Inter in the summer) has scored seven direct free-kick goals in Serie A (all with the Giallorossi), which is at least three more than any other player in the competition.
  
• Arturo Vidal may have a strong record against Rome teams, but he is without a goal this season having scored at least seven in each of his previous four Serie A campaigns.

WHAT THEY SAID

“We had chances. The pitch isn’t an excuse; we couldn’t score and now we need to shift focus to Roma. We know our own worth; it’ll be a huge six-pointer at the Olimpico and we’ll go there to win.”

- Alessandro Bastoni after the Sampdoria loss