⚽️🇮🇹 Serie A is back and all roads lead to Rome: Roma – Inter as Saturday Night clash 🏟️🏛️
Serie A is back after the break caused by the World Cup qualifiers. Serie A leaders Roma host last Champions League finalists Inter with the wish to continue their leadership.
Serie A standings and next fixtures in the European competitions
Roma leads the Serie A standings with 15 points together with Napoli as Roma lost 5 in the first 6 losing only to Torino at home. Inter follow 3 points behind having already lost 2 games out of 6. There between we find Milan with 13 points while the OId Lady Juventus have 12 points.
After this Saturday Night clash, Roma will prepare for their next Europa League encounter against Viktoria Plzen on Thurday, October 23 in Rome. Roma have now 3 points in Europea League after winning to Nice 2-1 in France and losing to Lille 0-1 in Rome. Inter will instead travel to Brussels to face Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in Champions League. In the main European competition Inter has won both two games played against Ajax (2-0 in Netherlands) and Slavia Prague (3-0 in San Siro).
1527 minutes played by Inter
As reported by the leading football newspaper in Italy La Gazzetta dello Sport, Inter is the Italian team with the highest number of minutes played by his players with their national teams: 1527 minutes collected by Calhanoglu and his team mates while Roma counts 1264 minutes.
The main difference in these numbers is that Inter most important players have travelled and played around Europe and the world like Calhanoglu, Barella, Lautaro Martinez, Dumfries, Dimarco, Akanji, Zielinski, Carlos Augusto. The most Roma players, on the other side, are usually not in the starting eleven (Pisilli, Ferguson, El Aynaoui).
Here you can find the statistics written by La Gazzetta dello Sport in his online version:
https://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Serie-A/Inter/17-10-2025/sosta-nazionali-inter-piu-spremuta-57-giocatori-delle-big-in-campo-tra-gol-e-infortuni.shtml
🎉 Happy Birthday Paulo Roberto Falcão 🇧🇷
On October 16 former Brazil and Roma star Paulo Roberto Falcão has celebrated his 72nd birthday and his former Italian team has honoured him by sending him the new Roma jersey with his name written on the back of the shirt as you can see in the image published by Falcão in his Instagram profile prfalcao5. With Falcão the Giallorossi won their second Italian title in history on May 8, 1983. The first had been won in 1942 and the two titles have been followed by a third one won by Roma in 2001.
Roma fans online website Il Romanista has reached Falcão and interviewed him. He recalled an important moment of his career when he suggested his coach Nils Liedholm to make a tactical change which permitted Roma to defeat Inter in San Siro 4-2 (season 1980-1981). You can listen to the interview (in Italian) at the following link:
https://www.ilromanista.eu/news/as-roma/165936/audio-riascolta-lintervento-di-falcao-a-radio-romanista
Roma coach Gasperini against his former team
While Paulo Roberto Falcão turned 72, the number of days in which Gian Piero Gasperini has worked as coach of Internazionale has been 73 and in those days actual Inter trainer Christian Chivu was one of his players. After 5 defeats and one draw as Inter lost to Milan in the Italian Supercup, lost in Palermo and Novara in Serie A and lost also to Trabzonspor in Champions League. The only point obtained by Gasperini has been against Roma, 0-0 at home.
Gasperini lost all of his last 8 encounters against Inter. In the last 19 games against Inter, Gasperini has won one.
Inter coach Christian Chivu against his former team
Romanian coach and former player Christian Chivu is well known for being the coach and former player of Inter. Chivu has been part of the team which won the Triplete: Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Champions League. Chivu has played for Inter from 2007 until 2014 but his career in Italy has started when he moved from Ajax to Rome. With the Giallorossi Christian Chivu has played from year 2003 until 2007, the year of his transfer to Inter.
The best defense versus the best attack
While we know that Gasperini’s teams are usually characterized by an offensive play and a high number of goals scored, his season in Rome has started with a solid defense: only 2 goals suffered in Serie A in the first 6 games. 7 is the number of goals scored by his team.
On the other side, former defender Christian Chivu, has started the season with 17 goals in 6 matches. His team can count on two huge strikers like Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram. Now they also (re)discovered new signed striker Francesco Pio Esposito who already scored and offered great performances in Serie A and in his debut with the Azzurri. Esposito grew up with Inter as he played in all youth teams from 2014 until 2023.
Also former Parma player, French striker Ange-Yoann Bonny, has started scoring for his new team: one goal in his debut against Torino and one goal against Cremonese where he also offered three assists to his team mates.
Stadio Olimpico wasn’t built in a day
The old saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” emphasizes the fact that great achievements require time, efforts and significant patience. We can enlarge this metaphor to football and to the team of Roma, plenty of tradition and known for the great passion transmitted by his fans, the Romanisti, who described themselves as “tifosi più tifosi del mondo” (“the most fanatic fans in the world”) as the head title of the website Il Romanista writes as subheader.
With this reality as background it is not a surprise that a great coach and Roma fan (and former Roma player) like Claudio Ranieri has been able to take Roma from the 12th place to the 5th place in the last season.
With Ranieri Roma started a long strike of positive results at Stadio Olimpico winning 11 and drawing only 2 of his last 13 home matches. Gasperini also won 2 but also lost 1 to Torino. As we know, Ranieri has quit his mission as coach and continued as Senior Advisor being a great support for the owner of the club and also for the new coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
Roma – Inter H2H
Inter is a positive tradition in Rome recently as they won 5 of their last 8 matches played against Roma at Stadio Olimpico and won all last 4. This match will be the encounter number 185 between these teams in Serie A. Inter scored overall 299 goals, Roma scored 233.
Here the results of the last four encounters played in Rome:
20.10.2024 Roma – Inter 0-1
10.02.2024 Roma – Inter 2-4
06.05.2023 Roma – Inter 0-2
04.12.2021 Roma – Inter 0-3
Last win obtained by Roma against Inter has been on October 2, 2016: Roma – Inter 2-1.
Who will miss the match?
Roma will miss only Angelino due to injury. Inter will travel to Rome without Marcus Thuram who is also recovering from an injury. Darmian is doubt while third goalkeeper Di Gennaro is also not available. Both squads are almost complete but, as many players have played with their national teams and some of them also had long flights, it is possible that many substitutions will occur early.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s press conference
Press conference made by Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini on Friday, October 17. The conference is in Italian and no captions are available in other languages.
Gasperini underlined the fact that Inter is the best team in Italy together with Napoli but, at the same time, he added that his team’s ambition can not been defined now. It is clear that the main goal of Roma is to qualify to next Champions League as this is the main competition and it guarantees an important access to financial support. But Gasperini does not want his team to think in terms of a goal but in terms of team development and continous improvement.
Christian Chivu’s press conference
Here you find the video of Christian Chivu’s press conference the day before the match. He spoke in Italian but you can switch on the option offered by Youtube for the captions in different languages.
Christian Chivu has underlined the fact that Gian Piero Gasperini has become an example for all managers due to his tecnical knowledge. Chivu has had Gasperini as trainer in 2011 and he said that the preparation of that season has been the best pre-season training in his career.
Mile Svilar impressed by Roma fans
During an interview with Dazn, Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar has confirmed that his decision to sign his deal with Roma (until 2030) has been influenced by the passion of Roma fans and the way he feels in Rome. He also added that Roma is strong and does not need to fear any opponent.
Match preview
The match will be a great Saturday Night clash where both teams have the possibility to get three points. Until now they have not drawn a single game as Roma won 5 and lost 1 while Inter won 4 and lost 2.
Even though the teams will both look for a win and not for a draw, it can not be forgotten that the players must get back from their World Cup qualifiers and long travels. Some of them will be more tired than others and from this point of view one point would be a good results for both.
Roma could keep their position in the top teams and risk only to lose 2 points from Napoli (which will play with Torino) while Inter can travel back to Milan avoiding a dangerous third defeat.
The great French striker Bonny has not played yet for his national team and he is fit and motivated. He will try to find some space in the lines between Roma central defenders Celik, Mancini and N’Dicka. On the wings, Dimarco on the left and Dumfries on the right will try to create problems to Wesley and to Tsimikas (or Rensch).
Turkish star Hakan Calhanoglu played his 100th game with his national team. Turkey won in Bulgaria 6-1 (2 assists made by Calhanoglu) and again, they won 4-1 with Georgia (again 2 assists by Hakan Calhanoglu).
Now Calhanoglu will try to defeat the former team of his National team coach Vincenzo Montella but he must face his team mate Zeki Çelik.
Roma – Inter: possible starting line-ups
ROMA (3-4-2-1) |
||
GK |
99 |
Mile SVILAR 🇷🇸 |
RB |
19 |
Zeki ÇELIK 🇹🇷 |
CD |
23 |
Gianluca MANCINI 🇮🇹 |
CD |
5 |
Evan N’DICKA 🇨🇮 |
RB |
43 |
WESLEY 🇧🇷 |
DM |
4 |
Bryan CRISTANTE 🇮🇹 |
CM |
17 |
Manu KONÉ 🇫🇷 |
LB |
12 |
Konstantinos TSIMIKAS 🇬🇷 |
RW |
18 |
Matías SOULÉ 🇦🇷 |
AM |
7 |
Lorenzo PELLEGRINI 🇮🇹 |
CF |
9 |
Artem DOVBYK 🇺🇦 |
Manager |
Gian Piero GASPERINI 🇮🇹 |
|
|
Reserves |
||
INTER (3-5-2) |
||
GK |
1 |
Yann SOMMER🇨🇭 |
CD |
25 |
Manuel AKANJI🇨🇭 |
CD |
15 |
Francesco ACERBI 🇮🇹 |
CD |
95 |
Alessandro BASTONI 🇮🇹 |
RB |
2 |
Denzel DUMFRIES 🇳🇱 |
CM |
23 |
Nicolò BARELLA 🇮🇹 |
CM |
10 |
Hakan CALHANOGLU 🇹🇷 |
CM |
22 |
Henrikh MKHITARYAN🇦🇲 |
LB |
32 |
Federico DIMARCO 🇮🇹 |
CF |
10 |
Lautaro MARTÍNEZ 🇦🇷 |
CF |
14 |
Ange-Yoan BONNY 🇫🇷 |
Manager |
Christian CHIVU 🇷🇴 |
|
|
Reserves |
||
Referee: Daniele Massa
Assistants: Filippo Meli, Dario Cecconi
Fourth official: Ermanno Feliciani
VAR: Francesco Meraviglia
AVAR: Rosario Abisso
🗓️ Match date 18.10.2025
🕒 Match time 20:45 CET
🏟️ Venue Stadio Olimpico (Rome)
As great football passionates we at Totalsportnews also want to wish Happy Birthday to Paulo Roberto Falcão, the so-called 8th King of Rome, as he belongs to the iconic sportsmen who brought great joy, fantasy and technical and tactical skills, an example for generations of players.
Falcão won all of his games played at Stadio Olimpico against Inter: 4-1 in Coppa Italia, 3-2, 2-1 and 1-0 in Serie A.
The King of Rome was not crowned in a day 👑