Italy Star Ready For Battle With Napoli Centre-Forward After Successful Outings Vs Man City & Atalanta Stars

Inter Milan defender Francesco Acerbi is ready for his battle with Romelu Lukaku after containing the likes of Erling Haaland and Mateo Retegui.

This is highlighted in today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews.

This evening, Francesco Acerbi is expected to return to the Inter starting eleven.

The 36-year-old will take the place of Stefan de Vrij in the lineup after having been out for a few weeks with an injury.

There is a clear reason why Inter coach Simone Inzaghi is ready to give Acerbi the nod.

The Italian international is nothing less than a specialist in the task of man-marking strikers.

And Napoli have a centre-forward who will require plenty of attention.

Inter know well the kind of threat that Belgian international striker Romelu Lukaku carries. And they will therefore consider keeping him quiet a key task.

Acerbi has done so before. The 36-year-old was tasked with marking Lukaku twice last season, proving more than up to the job.

Moreover, Acerbi has marked plenty of strikers just as formidable as Lukaku.

Acerbi Ready For Lukaku Battle After Marking Haaland & Retegui

Since joining Inter, Acerbi has had to face plenty of tough strikers in Serie A.

The Italian has gone head-to-head with the likes of Victor Osimhen, Olivier Giroud, Duvan Zapata, Ciro Immobile, and Dusan Vlahovic, to name just a few.

And the former Lazio defender has kept all of these quiet.

This season alone, Acerbi has passed two exceptionally tough tests.

The first came against Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui in September.

The former Genoa striker leads the Serie A scoring charts. And there is a reason for this – Retegui’s physicality and clever movement have allowed him to get on the end of no shortage of chances.

But Acerbi made sure that Retegui had little impact when Inter faced Atalanta.

And then in the Champions League, Acerbi had to mark arguably European football’s best centre-forward at the moment, Erling Haaland.

But Acerbi had done so already. He kept Haaland quiet in the 2023 Champions League final, even as Inter lost the match 0-1.

Inter went one better and got a draw out of the Etihad. And Haaland once again was far from his best, as Acerbi kept a close eye on the Norwegian international.