To understanInter vs Liverpool: The Key Stats
- The Opta supercomputer makes Inter the pre-match favourites, determining they have a 44.8% chance of victory over Liverpool (30.1%).
- Inter are unbeaten in their last 18 home matches in the Champions League (W15 D3) – the longest ongoing streak in the competition.
- Lautaro Martínez has scored in all five of his Champions League appearances at San Siro in 2025, racking up eight goals.
Liverpool’s tumultuous campaign took another turn for the worse at the weekend, so they will be hoping for a change in fortunes against Inter in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Reds let a two-goal lead slip in a 3-3 draw at Leeds United in the Premier League on Saturday, with Ao Tanaka’s 96th-minute strike leaving them with one win in six games in all competitions.
That run included a shock 4-1 defeat at home to PSV last time out in the Champions League, which saw Arne Slot’s men drop to 13th in the league-phase table.
To make matters worse, star forward Mohamed Salah, who was on the bench for the third straight game, plunged his future at the club into doubt with his post-game comments at Elland Road.
The Egypt international, who signed a new two-year contract in April and has only scored five goals in all competitions this season, told reporters: “I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.”
Unsurprisingly, Salah has been left out of Liverpool’s travelling squad, so he will not feature at San Siro.
While Salah has failed to replicate his exemplary displays of Liverpool’s Premier League title-winning campaign of 2024-25, he is not the only member of the squad misfiring. The Reds converted just twice from 44 shots and 4.9 expected goals (xG) in their previous two Champions League games, and now they come up against an Inter team who have only conceded three times in the competition this season.
Two of those came in a 2-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid last time out – their first loss in the competition this term. They are now one of four teams sitting three points behind Arsenal.
Following that defeat, Cristian Chivu’s side have won three straight games and scored 11 goals in the process, including an impressive 4-0 win over Como on Saturday.
Martínez found the back of the net three times in his two appearances in that sequence, and he could become only the second player, after Andriy Shevchenko (7), to score in six consecutive home Champions League games for an Italian club if he continues his hot streak against Liverpool.
As for team news, Inter will be hoping to welcome right-back Denzel Dumfries back into the fold after the Netherlands international sat out five matches with an ankle injury, but Matteo Darmian’s calf issue is likely to keep him out.
As well as Salah’s absence, Liverpool will be without Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa, Jeremie Frimpong and Wataru Endo, but they were boosted by Conor Bradley’s return from a muscle injury at the weekend.
Inter vs Liverpool Head-to-Head
Inter were triumphant when the teams last met in the 2021-22 edition of the Champions League. However, their 1-0 victory at Anfield was not enough to avoid elimination from the last 16, with Salah and Roberto Firmino having secured a 2-0 win for the Reds in the first leg at San Siro.
That was Liverpool’s fourth victory in six meetings with Inter in the competition, and they were also triumphant when they visited the Nerazzurri in March 2008 – Fernando Torres scoring the only goal of the game to seal a 3-0 aggregate success, again in the last 16.
The only time both teams have scored in this fixture was when Liverpool came out on top 3-1 in the first leg of the 1964-65 semi-finals – their first meeting. In the five matches since, the winners have managed to keep a clean sheet.
Inter vs Liverpool Prediction
Despite Liverpool having a superior head-to-head record against Inter, the Opta supercomputer gives the Serie A side the upper hand on this occasion.
Chivu’s side were victorious in 44.8% of our pre-match simulations, with Liverpool coming out on top in 30.1%. The remaining 25.1% of the projections saw the spoils shared.
Inter vs Liverpool Predicted Lineups
Inter: Yann Sommer, Manuel Akanji, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni, Carlos Augusto, Fedrico Dimarco, Petar Sucic, Hakan Çalhanoglu, Nicolo Barella, Lautaro Martínez, Marcus Thuram.
Head coach: Cristian Chivu
Liverpool: Alisson, Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitiké, Alexander Isak.
Head coach: Arne Slot
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 10,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Tuesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.