Europa League semi-final: Inter Milan vs Shakhtar Donetsk match preview

Inter Milan are on course to reach their first European final in 10 years as they face Shakhtar Donetsk at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany on Monday night.

Inter manager, Antonio Conte, won the UEFA Cup as a player with Juventus in 1993. His future would probably be decided at the end of Inter Milan’s Europa League campaign. Admittedly, Shakhtar are the strongest side his team has faced so far in the competition.

He says: “We have a lot of respect for Shakhtar. We are facing a team that has established themselves over the years and we are well prepared.

“[Shakhtar] are the strongest opponents we have faced so far in our Europa League path, but we want to show that there’s a reason that we are in the semi-finals, and our aim is to reach the final.”

Despite the respect for Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter who finished one point shy of Serie A winners Juventus will arguably go into the match as pre-match favourites.

Inter also parade a host of very talented and renowned players in their team, but Shakhtar are no slouches themselves in European competition, and had won the competition in 2008, would battle hard to get a place in Friday’s final.

They will obviously take the attack to Inter and would hope their Junior Moraes, who scored six goals in Europe this season and was the Ukrainian Premier League’s top goalscorer with 20 goals, will be crucial for them on the night.

Team news

Alexis Sanchez is expected to sit out the last-four encounter with a thigh injury despite securing a permanent move to Inter Milan from Manchester united a few weeks ago.

Matias Vecino also remains absent as he recovers from knee surgery.

As for Shakhtar, Maksym Malyshev, Vladyslav Vakula, and Ismaily could all be missing.

Stats and facts heading into the match (backed by Opta)

• Inter Milan will appear in the semi-final of a European competition for the first time since the 2009/10 in the UEFA Champions League (winning the competition that year), whilst this is the eighth time the Italian side have reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup/ Europa League – more than any other side.
• The only previous meeting between Inter and Shakhtar Donetsk was in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase, with Inter winning 3-1 on aggregate across two legs.
• Since dropping out of the UEFA Champions League, Inter have won all four of their UEFA Europa League games this season – they last won five consecutive matches in major European competition (excluding qualifiers) between December 2009 – April 2010 (a run of six) on their way to the UEFA Champions League final.
• Shakhtar Donetsk are looking to reach only their second ever UEFA European final, last achieving that feat in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, knocking out Dynamo Kiev in the semi-final and beating Werder Bremen in the final.
• In the quarter final, Inter’s Romelu Lukaku became the first player in UEFA Cup/ Europa League history to score in nine consecutive matches a run stretching back to November 2014 with Everton. The Belgian striker has been involved in 15 goals in his last nine UEFA Europa League matches (12 goals & 3 assists).
• Junior Moraes has been directly involved in seven goals in seven UEFA Europa League appearances for Shakhtar Donetsk (5 goals, 2 assists), with all of these games coming in the knockout phase of the competition.

Prediction

Inter Milan 3-1 Shakhtar Donetsk