Inter Milan vs. Shakhtar Donetsk – prediction, team news and more

Inter Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk will battle it out at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf on Monday looking to earn a place in the Europa League final.

This season’s Europa League campaign has felt never-ending but the finish line is now in sight with just four teams remaining in the competition.

The winner of this contest will take on either Sevilla, which won Manchester United on Sunday.

Inter Milan did not finish their domestic season in the best way possible, dropping some questionable points.

Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk, who lifted their fourth league title in a row, will be looking to make their second Europa League final.

Reason for Inter Milan vs. Shakhtar Donetsk:

• Inter have won their last four matches in Europe.
• Lukaku has scored in nine straight Europa League games.
• Inter have won their last five matches in all competitions.
• The Italian side have scored twice or more in each of those wins, conceding just once.

This is the first major match-up between these two teams. Their only other meeting came way back in the 2005-06 season, where Inter Milan prevailed 3-1 on aggregate in a Champions League qualifying round.

It’s been a long decade for Inter Milan, but they are finally getting success on the European stage. The Nerazzurri will appear in the semi-final of a European competition for the first time since the 2009/10 in the UEFA Champions League – their last taste of European silverware.

Their Champions League run in 2010 was the last time Inter won five successive games in European competition. The Italians have won five matches on the spin, scoring at least twice in each of them and keeping four clean sheets.

Shakhtar Donetsk have played some really good football throughout the course of their European season.

Shakhtar Donetsk are looking to reach only their second ever UEFA European final, last achieving that feat in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup.

Junior Moraes has been directly involved in seven goals in seven UEFA Europa League appearances for Shakhtar Donetsk (5 goals, 2 assists), with all of these games coming in the knockout phase of the competition.

While Shakhtar are a dangerous side, Inter have made great strides forward in the last few weeks.

Our prediction: FC Shakhtar Donetsk +1.0 (Asian) @ 1.826