The bright lights of the Champions League will shine on San Siro for the second week running on Wednesday night, as Inter Milan host Porto in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

Simone Inzaghi’s men finished second in Group C to set up a tie with the Portuguese champions, who took advantage of their adversaries’ slip-ups to finish first in Group B.

Seven days on from AC Milan gleaning a narrow advantage in their last-16 tie with Tottenham Hotspur, Inter will endeavour to make lightning strike twice for the Lombardy luminaries on the San Siro turf, having finished second in the fierce three-horse race to qualify from Group C.

With Viktoria Plzen written off before the first whistle and following the script by collecting zero points in the group, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Inter battled for continental supremacy, and the Nerazzurri would edge their Catalonian counterparts by three points to finish second behind a perfect Bayern.

They might be 15 points behind leaders Napoli in their domestic championship but Inter Milan will begin their latest attempt to progress beyond the UEFA Champions League (UCL) last 16 for the first time since 2010/11 in good form, after a five-match unbeaten run in all competitions (W4, D1). This is their first meeting with Porto since they played four times in 2005 (Inter: W2, D1, L1) including a 4-2 aggregate win for the Italians at this stage in the 2004/05 season.

Losing just one of their last 12 competitive home games (W11) also suggests the Italians could take charge of the tie at the San Siro, where the last seven UCL matches they’ve hosted were won by the side scoring first (Inter: W4, L3). Simone Inzaghi’s side can have little excuse for starting slowly as he was able to rotate his squad for Saturday’s 3-1 win over Udinese.

Porto are up against it then, but few teams in Europe are in better form as they’ve won their last ten competitive matches and are unbeaten since late October (W19, D3), slugging it out with Benfica and Braga at the top of Portugal’s Primeira Liga. Four of those wins enabled them to become the only side this term to top their UCL group despite losing twice!

Two of those successes were away from home ‘to nil’, while holding Milan to a 1-1 draw here last term and Juventus needing extra-time to beat them in Turin in 2020/21 suggests they shouldn’t fear another trip to Italy. Six clean sheets across their last seven competitive away games (W6, D1) will also offer encouragement as they look to make the quarter-finals for the third time in five seasons.

Players to watch: Romelu Lukaku’s penalty against Udinese for Inter was his second goal of three this term to arrive before the 25th minute, while Pepê has netted in two of Porto’s last four games and all five of his competitive strikes this term arrived after the 40th minute.

Hot streak: None of Inter’s last 16 UCL games witnessed scoring before the 15th minute (W8, D3, L5).

Inter Milan Champions League form:

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Inter Milan form (all competitions):

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Porto Champions League form:

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Porto form (all competitions):

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Inter Milan possible starting lineup:

Onana; Skriniar, Bastoni, Acerbi; Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Brozovic, Dimarco; Lukaku, Martinez

Porto possible starting lineup:

Costa; Mario, Pepe, Carmo, Sanusi; Franco, Eustaquio, Grujic, Pepe; Taremi, Namaso

Pitting two of Europe’s tightest rearguards against one another should inevitably lead to a closely-contested affair, and Porto have overcome adversity with vigour during their injury crisis.

However, Conceicao’s growing fitness concerns may ultimately count against him at the San Siro fortress, where Inzaghi’s side can break down the staunch Dragons backline and end their visitors’ unbeaten streak to take a slender advantage to Portugal for the second leg.