Hellas Verona vs Inter Milan preview - Verona eyeing home comforts

Posted Friday, March 14, 2014 by PA

Hellas Verona will look to register their first win at the Marc' Antonio Bentegodi stadium in Serie A since December 22 when they take on Inter Milan on Saturday night.

The Verona outfit's home form since beating Lazio 4-1 last year has been dismal with three defeats and two draws.

"We want to return to winning ways," Hellas goalkeeper Rafael said. "We will try to hand a good performance against Inter because it has been a while since we last won at home.

"We want to see a sold-out stadium on Saturday as only with the help of our fans will we be able to beat Inter."

Hellas go into the encounter on the back of a 2-0 defeat at Parma that saw them drop to seventh place, four points adrift of Inter, who are fifth.

"We want to bounce back immediately from that defeat," Rafael said. "We have worked very hard this week in training and hopefully it will pay off."

Hellas, coached by Andrea Mandorlini, lost 4-2 at Inter earlier this season and Rafael is aware his side must step up its game if it is to upset the Nerazzurri.

"Inter have great champions and we will have to be very careful because it will be a difficult game," he said.

Inter travel to Verona invigorated by last weekend's 1-0 triumph over Torino.

The outcome allowed Inter to return to winning ways having drawn their last two league games and allowed the Nerazzurri to cut the gap with fourth-placed Fiorentina to one point.

Despite the victory, Inter coach Walter Mazzarri believes his team still has plenty of room for improvement, especially in attack.

Inter have scored just seven goals in 2014.

"We have to learn to kill games off earlier," Mazzarri said. "We need to be more convinced and determined in what we are doing.

"We struggle to score goals despite having the chances to do so."

Hellas will be bolstered by the return of the team's top scorer Luca Toni from suspension. Toni has scored 13 goals for Hellas this season.

Inter will be without suspended defender Juan Jesus.