Inter Milan begin the new Serie A season at home against Torino, now under the guidance of former defender Cristian Chivu. He has taken over after Simone Inzaghi left the club following a tough 2024-25 season, where Inter missed out on the league title on the final day and finished second in both the Champions League and Supercoppa Italiana.
Chivu’s only senior management experience was with Parma last season. He also led Inter at the FIFA Club World Cup, where they were knocked out early. A win here would help ease doubts around him and would also be the first time since 2003 that Inter have won their opening league game with a foreign manager in charge.
Torino ended last season in 11th place, once again missing out on European football. They changed manager in the summer, bringing in Marco Baroni to replace Paolo Vanoli. His first official match saw Torino beat Modena 1-0 in the Coppa Italia, but they had lost three friendlies in a row before that. Torino have not had much joy at San Siro in recent years, failing to win any of their last 18 league games there since April 2016.
Inter have not lost to Torino in their last 12 league meetings, winning 11 of them. They have also won the last six in a row.
Inter have scored the first goal in eight of their last ten league games. In five of their last six Serie A matches, the team that won kept a clean sheet. Torino have lost their last five matches without scoring, and each of their last 11 games has had fewer than three goals.
Marcus Thuram could be a key player again after scoring in Inter’s final pre-season friendly. He also scored three goals against Torino in this fixture last season. Nikola Vlasic, who scored for Torino in that same match, also got the winning goal in their recent cup game.
Inter will be without Hakan Calhanoglu and Pio Esposito due to suspensions. Federico Dimarco might also miss out after picking up a thigh bruise. Torino are still missing long-term injured player Perr Schuurs.
