Stats and trivia ahead of Inter vs. SPAL

MILAN - Even if emotions are still running high from that night in Prague, it’s already time to think about the league once again. Inter will be back in action at 15:00 CET on Sunday at San Siro on matchday 14 of Serie A TIM. Their opponents will be Semplici’s SPAL. In collaboration with Opta, here are all the statistics, previous encounters and pieces of trivia ahead of the match.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

Inter and SPAL have played each other 36 times in the league: the Nerazzurri have won 25 of those meetings, the Spallini have won four times and there has been seven draws. Inter haven’t lost in 14 games against SPAL in Serie A, picking up eleven wins and three draws. You have to go back to December 1962 to find the last time SPAL scored more than one goal against the Nerazzurri in a Serie A match (3-2 to Inter): since then they have scored six goals in 13 matches.

Inter are unbeaten in their last 18 home games against SPAL in Serie A, with 16 wins and two draws. The Nerazzurri have won their last five home games against SPAL, scoring at least two goals in each and keeping a clean sheet in their three most recent victories.

FORM GUIDE

Inter have won eleven of their 13 league games this season. The Nerazzurri have never won twelve of their first 14 Serie A matches.

Antonio Conte’ team have scored in all their league games so far this season: Inter have now scored in 16 consecutive Serie A games (taking into account the final three matchdays of last season). It’s the longest scoring streak among all teams currently in the Italian top flight. Inter could become the fifth team to score in all their first 14 Serie A games of a season, after Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina and Roma.

Inter have scored at least two goals in their last nine games in all competitions: they haven’t scored in more than ten games in a row since January 2007 under Roberto Mancini.

SPAL is the first team that wasn’t promoted the previous season to only pick up one point from their first six away games in Serie A since Palermo in 2011/12. The team from Ferrara have drawn their last two league games: they haven’t drawn three games consecutively in the league since December 2018. SPAL haven’t scored in six consecutive away games: only once before in their history have they gone on a worse goalless run (nine matches in 1963).

GENERAL STATISTICS

No team in the top five major European leagues has scored fewer goals than SPAL so far this season (eight goals); moreover SPAL, alongside Leganes, have the smallest number of different goalscorers so far this season (three).

This match will see the team with fewest goalscorers in the league (SPAL with three) take on the team with the most (Inter with eleven).

SPAL are the only team in the league not to have scored a header yet; meanwhile Inter have scored five, more than any other team.

No other team in the top five major European leagues have scored more goals from set-pieces than Inter (eleven, level with Roma).

Only Lazio have a better percentage of shots on target to shots taken than Inter (52.6%); on the other hand AC Milan are the only team with a worse percentage than SPAL (38.5%).

PLAYER FOCUS

Inter striker Romelu Lukaku has scored ten league goals so far this season, which is more than three teams currently in Serie A have managed, including SPAL on eight.

Since Opta stats began (in 2004/05), no Inter players who have taken more than two penalties in Serie A have a 100% conversion rate except for Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez (three out of three each).

Lautaro Martinez is the league’s top scorer in the opening 30 minutes of games with five goals, while Romelu Lukaku is the league’s most prolific player in the second half of matches (eight goals).

Romelu Lukaku has earned his side the most points so far this season thanks to his goals (eleven points), while Stefan de Vrij has earned the most points through assists (six points with three match-winning passes).

Three players have scored ten goals in their first 15 Serie A appearances since the year 2000: Domenico Berardi in 2013/14 and Diego Milito in 2008/09. Lukaku has ten goals in his first 13 appearances.

Matteo Politano scored against SPAL at San Siro in the league last season. Four of five goals for Inter have come at San Siro.

Marcelo Brozovic (957) and Milan Skriniar (849) are the two players who have completed the most passes in Serie A this season.

Andrea Petagna has scored 50% of SPAL’s league goals (4/8). He finished last season having scored 36% of the Ferrarese club’s league goals (16/44).

SPAL’s Alberto Paolschi has scored two goals in his last three league games against Inter, the last of which was also his most recent league goal (scored in October 2018 at San Siro).

Sergio Floccari has scored twice against Inter in Serie A (both times with Atalanta), however the last of those came in January 2009; since then he has gone ten games without netting against the Nerazzurri.

Felipe played for Inter four times during the 2014/15 season.