According to UEFA.COM reports this morning, Werder will be missing Diego, Almeida, Naldo and Baumann. I was considering this to be a very balanced game provided that both teams have a full squad, but after the terrible performance of Werder away to Karlsruhe, and the superb Inter win against Lazio combined with the missing of the above four "essential" players for Werder, I am inclined to bet medium stakes on Inter to win.

Murinho has declared that he is going for the win and he wants to finish first in the group, despite the respect he has for the Werder Coach. Furthermore, he said that he is very dissatisfied with only 8 points, and he will field his best XI in order to take the win back to Italy.

Werder is the team that needs to attack right from the beginning, because they want the win, and hope that Anorthosis will lose points in Athens. What I am wondering though is who will be organizing the Werder offence, as most passes and organization of the game were done by Diego. Almeida posed a great threat up front pulling with him defenders, and clearing the space for Claudio Pizzaro. Without Diego and Almeida, I believe Pizzaro will be silenced by Italian defense tonight. It will be difficult for Werder to attack right from the center of the field as the "brain" of the attack Diego will be missing, so I presume that the attacks will come from the sides with crosses.

I believe that the attacks of Werder will be easily cleared by the Italians, who will have lots of space up front to punish the unstable defense of Werder. Granted, Werder beat Chelsea, and Real, and other teams at Weserstadium, but the point of the matter is that this is another Werder, with extremely unstable performances, that sits in the middle of the table in the Bundesliga. Let us not forget that so far Werder hasn't beaten Anorthosis or Panathinaikos at home. Will they beat Inter?

I will not be surprised if this game ends in a clear win for Inter, but I will only take this with medium stakes because of the motivation of the home side.

Pick : Inter to win
Odds : 2.75
Stake : 5 / 10
Bookmaker : Ladbrokes