Inter Plan to Give Chivu His First Serie A Win Against Torino

Inter Milan vs Torino

Inter Milan will commence their redemption tour with a game against Torino this Monday night at San Siro, and the Nerazzurri hope to give their new head coach, Cristian Chivu, his first Serie A victory of the campaign. 

After guiding Inter Milan to a Round of 16 run in the Club World Cup last June, Chivu went undefeated in his three exhibition games against AS Monaco, Monza, and Olympiacos. And now it’s the real deal, as Chivu’s side is expected to compete for the Scudetto, which they last won not too long ago.

Torino also appointed a new head coach this summer, replacing Paolo Vanoli with Marco Baroni, who left Lazio after failing to qualify for any European competition last season. Torino recently opened their 2025-26 campaign on a positive note, defeating Modena 1-0 in the opening round of the Coppa Italia.

Learn more about this high-profile clash, courtesy of today’s SBOTOP preview.

 

Talking Points

Inter Milan to miss star playmaker

Inter Milan will miss the services of Hakan Calhanoglu and Francesco Pio Esposito in the opening matchday against Torino due to an accumulation of yellow cards that was carried over from last term. Calhanoglu picked up a yellow card against Como in the final match of last season. Esposito also picked up a yellow card in the second leg of Spezia’s Serie B promotion play-off final against Cremonese.

Losing these two hurts Cristian Chivu’s side because Calhanoglu was one of the team’s top playmakers last season, with five league goals and six assists, and Esposito is fresh from a career year, having contributed 19 league goals and three assists for Spezia last term.

Meanwhile, it’s not all bad for the Nerazzurri, as they received fitness boosts involving Federico Dimarco, Carlos Augusto, and Davide Frattesi. Dimarco suffered a thigh bruise during Inter Milan’s friendly win over Olympiacos, Augusto picked up a muscular problem last week, and Frattesi is fresh from having abdominal surgery. However, all of them are expected to be available for selection against Il Toro, especially after they were seen training earlier this week.

As far as their transfer activity is concerned, Inter Milan have only brought in Petar Sucic, Luis Henrique, Nicola Zalewski, and Ange-Yoan Bonny this summer. The club will continue to rely on the star trio of Nicolo Barella, Marcus Thuram, and Lautaro Martinez.

 

Many moving parts for Torino

Torino have had a busy offseason. After changing managers, Il Toro sold several key players, including Antonio Sanabria, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Samuele Ricci, and Sebastian Walukiewicz. Their most notable acquisition is to loan Giovanni Simeone from Napoli.

Simeone didn’t have a productive 2024-25 campaign with Napoli last season, as he was the backup behind Romelu Lukaku, Matteo Politano, David Neres, and Scott McTominay. Now with Torino, he’ll have more opportunities to shine, with Duvan Zapata, Che Adams, and Cyril Ngonge as his running mates. 

Il Toro are also on the verge of poaching Kristjan Asllani from Inter Milan to reinforce their midfield. 

 

History

Monday marks the sixth Serie A meeting between Inter Milan and Torino at the opening matchday of the season. In their five previous meetings, the Nerazzurri were unbeaten (W3, D2) and have kept a clean sheet in each of those games with an aggregate tally of 4-0.

Torino have drawn both of their last two opening day games of a campaign (0-0 against Cagliari in 2023-24 and 2-2 against AC Milan in 2024-25). Il Toro have only once drawn more games in a row on the opening matchday of a league season since a stretch between September 1955 and September 1957. 

 

Betting Tip

The Serie A 2025 odds predict a lopsided match at San Siro on Monday evening. As expected, Inter Milan are the massive favourites at 1.39 odds, while Torino are 6.50 underdogs, and a draw is at 4.30 in the 1X2 market. This fixture has typically been a low-scoring affair, and this could be the case again this weekend. There will be Serie A 2025 highlights, but it’ll come more from the hosts rather than the visitors.

Besides our recommended bet, bettors can also add Under 3.00 at 1.70, Under 2.75 at 1.95, Under 2.50 at 2.21, and Total Goal 2-3 at 2.03 to the parlay, with Total Goal 0-1 at 3.63 being the more conservative option. Furthermore, a Correct Score of 2-0 in favour of Inter Milan – the result of their most recent league encounter – could give you around 6.60 your bet.

   

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