Inter will head to the Etihad Stadium in midweek to take on Manchester City in the Champions League and all eyes will be on how the Serie A side stops Erling Haaland.
Haaland has been scoring goals for fun and in just four Premier League appearances this season, the Norwegian international has already netted nine goals, including two hat-tricks. His 9 goals have come from just 14 shots on target and he has an xG of 4.87.
Currently, Erling Haaland is the cheat code for Pep Guardiola and no team seems to have an answer to this problem. However, according to defender Stefan de Vrij, Inter have already worked on plans to try and stop the 24-year-old.
The defender has said, as quoted: “You have to work as a team to limit him, but also remember that Manchester City is not just Haaland.
“He is in good shape and scored a lot this season, but we have to defend as a team.”
Simone Inzaghi’s side are undefeated this season but they were held to a 1-1 draw by Monza at the weekend. These two dropped points are going to dent their confidence a little bit but if they can keep Haaland quiet then there’s a big chance Inter will come out of England with a hard-fought point.
There are criticisms that Erling Haaland goes missing against the big teams but that is not entirely true because since moving to England, the centre-forward has 15 goals and 7 assists in 20 league appearances against the big six teams.
Inter will definitely have their work cut out but if they really need to stop Haaland from scoring they will have to keep Silva and De Bruyne in check. These two are the primary playmakers for Manchester City and if Inzaghi’s team can rough them up, there’s every bit of chance that Erling Haaland will not have a sniff at goal.
Having said that, Erling Haaland is a proper predator who needs just one chance to find the back of the net so Inter will have to make sure that they keep their focus throughout the 90 minutes.