Inter Milan Hoping Italy Veteran Can Be “Antidote” To Man City Superstar Again | OneFootball

Inter Milan are hoping that defender Francesco Acerbi can be the “antidote” to Man City striker Erling Haaland for a second time.

This according to today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInterNews.

Since his arrival at Inter in 2022, Acerbi has proven to be a specialist at keeping strikers quiet.

The 36-year-old has faced plenty of formidable strikers in Serie A in the past couple seasons.

And all of Victor Osimhen, Dusan Vlahovic, Olivier Giroud, Ciro Immobile, Duvan Zapata, and Romelu Lukaku have felt the “muzzle” of Acerbi on them – to name just a few.

Acerbi’s physical strength and reading of the game have made him an extremely effective penalty area defender.

And perhaps no match was a greater testament to that than the 2023 Champions League final.

That match saw Acerbi go head-to-head with City striker Erling Haaland.

Inter Need Acerbi To Be The “Antidote” To Man City Striker Haaland Again

Haaland has been the most prolific striker in Europe since his arrival at Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund.

Therefore, he was always going to be the player who Inter marked out as the biggest goal threat in the Champions League final.

But in the end, Haaland barely got a kick of the ball.

Acerbi used all of his qualities and experience to win his duel with City’s goalscoring talisman.

And the Nerazzurri will need that from Acerbi once again.

It is expected that the 36-year-old will start tomorrow’s Champions League “league phase” opener against City.

And Haaland is certainly the player who looks likeliest to be a source of goals for city.

The 24-year-old has scored a remarkable nine goals already from just four Premier League matches.

Of course, stopping City means a lot more than stopping Haaland. Inter found that out the hard way in the Champions League final, as they lost even in spite of restricting the Norwegian.

But if Inter don’t manage to keep Haaland similarly quiet, it would become all the more difficult for them to get a result tomorrow at the Etihad.