Serie A Matchday 7 pairs a Bologna side that has kept just one clean sheet in six and conceded in every away game under Palladino with an Inter Milan team that has already made itself the early pace setter. Inter sit top after six games with 16 points, while Bologna are 14th with five and the gap reflects more than the table. The visitors arrive as defending champions averaging three goals per Serie A game, having failed to score just once in six outings and will look to extend their unbeaten league run against a side that only claimed its first win under Raffaele Palladino last weekend. Palladino took charge at Bologna on 16 September 2026, replacing Domenico Tedesco, while Cristian Chivu has been at Inter since 9 June 2025 after taking over from Simone Inzaghi and the two have not crossed paths often enough to produce anything meaningful on paper.
Inter arrive in excellent domestic shape with four wins and a draw from their last five league matches, including a 3-0 win over Parma on 10 October. They did lose 3-4 to Club Brugge three days later but that has not knocked their league momentum. Bologna, by contrast, have not been able to string anything together, their sequence reading loss, draw, loss, draw, win, with the highlight being a 2-1 victory at Lecce on 11 October that gave Palladino his first league win, though a subsequent defeat to Torino underlined that his back three is still being beaten in transition.
Palladino is without several players: Riccardo Orsolini is out with a thigh and hamstring injury expected to last around three weeks, Emil Holm remains sidelined by a long term hamstring problem that may keep him out until January 2027 and Arthur Theate is a doubt after picking up a leg contusion. Those absences bite hardest in wide areas, where Orsolini's directness and Holm's recovery pace are hard to replace. Inter also travel with their own injury list, as Lautaro Martinez is absent through a thigh and muscle injury, Curtis Jones misses out with a groin and thigh problem and John Stones is sidelined by a flexor issue, which means Chivu will lean even harder on Marcus Thuram.
Bologna have shifted toward a 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 shape under Palladino, with Lewis Ferguson anchoring midfield while the wing backs and attacking midfielders push higher. Federico Bernardeschi provides creativity from deeper areas, with Roberto Piccoli and Nicolo Cambiaghi as the forward options. Without Orsolini's direct running on the right, though, Bologna are more dependent on central combinations, which means their attacks will funnel through the middle, exactly where Barella and Calhanoglu are most dominant.
Inter have averaged three goals a game through six Serie A matches, playing a possession oriented style that forces lower block sides into defending for long stretches without the ball. Thuram is the main forward threat while Francesco Pio Esposito drops deeper to link play as a second striker and Barella's late runs into the box and Calhanoglu's range of passing give Inter a consistent second line of attack that Ferguson will struggle to track alone. Bastoni anchors a back line that pushes up aggressively to compress space. Ferguson has to contain Barella's runs, Bernardeschi will try to exploit the spaces Inter's full backs leave and Thuram's movement behind Bologna's centre backs will test a defence already short on pace.
Inter hold a lopsided historical edge, winning roughly 93 of around 195 meetings to Bologna's 58 and the recent picture is not dramatically different, with two wins apiece and a couple of draws in their most recent league encounters. The last meeting ended 3-3 in May 2026, a game in which Bologna exploited space on the flanks on the break but Inter's higher defensive line and Bastoni's ability to step into transitions should limit the space Bologna found that day.
Given the absences on both sides, set pieces could matter. Bologna lose Orsolini's delivery from wide and will rely on Bernardeschi or Ferguson at dead balls, whereas Inter have aerial threats in Bastoni and Thuram alongside midfielders who tend to win second balls.
Inter, five points clear at the top and capable of rotating, can afford to manage the game. Bologna cannot.
Inter Milan to win 3-0. Bologna's absences in wide areas, a defence still being beaten in transition and Inter's midfield dominance all tell the same story. Thuram's movement and the Barella-Calhanoglu axis should create sustained pressure throughout and with the squad depth to absorb their own injury problems, Inter look the clear side here.
Ryan Baldi
Football Writer
Ryan Baldi is a professional football writer with years of experience and has been featured by respected outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian, Sky Sports, DAZN, FourFourTwo, ESPN, Yahoo Sport and Football365. He has also written several books including Arsène Who?.
