Porto vs Inter Champions League round of 16 preview: Where to watch, kick-off time, starting line-ups
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
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When is it? How can you watch it? What are the starting line-ups? All you need to know about the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg between Porto and Inter.
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Porto and Inter meet in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg on Tuesday 14 March.
Porto vs Inter at a glance
When: Tuesday 14 March (21:00 CET kick-off)
Where: Estádio do Dragão, Porto
What: UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg
How it stands: First leg: 0-1
How to follow: Build-up and live coverage can be found here
Where to watch Porto vs Inter on TV
Fans can find their local UEFA Champions League broadcast partner(s) here.
What do you need to know?
Porto needed extra time to eliminate Roma and Juventus at this stage of the competition in 2018/19 and 2020/21 respectively. If the first leg at San Siro was anything to go by, an additional 30 minutes may be required to separate the two teams on this occasion. The Dragons showed more than enough to suggest they are capable of troubling the Nerazzurri, who needed a late Romelu Lukaku goal to take the lead in the tie, in the partisan atmosphere of the Estádio do Dragão.
Starting line-ups
Porto: Diogo Costa; Pepê, Fábio Cardoso, Marcano, Zaidu; Eustáquio, Uribe, Grujić, Galeno; Evanilson, Taremi
Suspended: Otávio
Misses next match if booked: Pepê
Inter: Onana; Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Martínez, Džeko
Misses next match if booked: Bastoni, Martínez, Dimarco
Form guide
Porto
Form (all competitions, most recent first): WWLLWW
Where they stand: 2nd in Liga, Portuguese Cup semi-finals, Portuguese League Cup winners
Inter
Form (all competitions, most recent first): LWLWWD
Where they stand: 2nd in Serie A, Coppa Italia semi-finals
Expert predictions
Nuno Tavares, Porto reporter
Porto have been plagued by injuries in recent times but Sérgio Conceição will be particularly worried about how to approach the second leg against Inter without his most influential player Otávio, who is suspended for the decider at the Dragão, and it remains to be seen how the Portuguese champions will cope with his absence. The recent home defeat against Gil Vicente was a major blow in the Portuguese title race and you get the feeling that the Champions League is now the club's main target. But if Porto want to emulate their 2003/04 dream campaign they will need Mehdi Taremi to rediscover his goalscoring abilities: the Iranian has found the net only three times in his 12 last outings.
Paolo Menicucci, Inter reporter
Ahead of the first leg, I wrote that it was impossible to predict which version of Inter we would see. The same can be said now as Inter lost against Bologna just a few days after beating Porto, continuing their rollercoaster campaign in which they have been beaten in seven games in Serie A this season. Lautaro Martínez, however, continues to fly after winning the World Cup with Argentina and has already scored nine goals in all competitions for the Nerazzurri in 2023.
What the coaches say
Sérgio Conceição, Porto coach: "It will be a balanced match, very difficult, against a team full of good players. We know our opponent but above all we know what we are capable of. We want to be intense, good at pressing, aggressive and, above all, intelligent. In these top-level matches we have to play the way we know, the way we feel most comfortable. We have 90 minutes to try to overturn the result but to do that we will have to be smart throughout the match. It will be important not to go on the attack, we will need to be patient and with the right aggression."
Simone Inzaghi, Inter coach: "We want to give it a go in the best possible way. We can take a big leap forward. Inter have reached the round of 16 twice in a row, something which hasn't happened for ten years. Now we want to improve: we work every day to do that. The first half was at San Siro, now the second half is even more difficult and exciting."
Where is the 2023 Champions League final?
Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium will host the final on Saturday 10 June 2023.
The winners gain a place in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League group stage, if they have not qualified via their domestic competition.