Inter president Beppe Marotta faces Juventus with ‘the utmost respect, but also with the ambition to achieve the maximum number of points’ and warns that both should be considered Scudetto contenders.

It starts at 5pm GMT in San Siro.

You can follow all the build-up and action from today’s five Serie A matches on the Live Blog.

The Nerazzurri are missing Hakan Calhanoglu, Carlos Augusto, Francesco Acerbi and Tajon Buchanan, so the big question mark was the playmaker in midfield.

Piotr Zielinski gets the nod in place of Kristjan Asllani, while Denzel Dumfries is the more attacking option on the right in place of Matteo Darmian.

Marotta ready for fiery Inter-Juventus

“It’s always an extraordinary atmosphere and I hope this will be a positive advertisement for all Italian football around the world,” Marotta told Sky Sport Italia.

“This is the Derby d’Italia, Juve are historical rivals, we face them with the utmost respect, but also with the ambition to achieve the maximum points. That is our spirit in this match.”

All clubs seem keen to shake off the title of ‘favourites’ in the Scudetto race this season, so will Marotta do the same?

“Juventus, Milan and Inter, not to mention Roma and Napoli, are always obliged to fight for victory. Only one can win, but they must be at least among the favorites every time. Juve is Not Borgorosso,” he added, referring to a team in a famous Italian comedy film.

The Inter president has already said this season that UEFA and FIFA must work with clubs and players’ associations to reduce the number of matches.

The growing list of injuries only reinforced his calls for that change.

“This is a season with more competitive matches than we have ever seen, just as last season ended with players completely exhausted. Lautaro Martinez played the Copa America and arrived here without training for the opening match of the Serie A season,” Marotta reiterated.

“With so many games piled up together, it’s not easy to deal with all these issues, so we absolutely need to find a solution. I think there have been a hundred injuries to players who have been on international duty and that is a huge number.

“The pace of the sport has also increased, so there is an extraordinary amount of effort involved and that cannot be sustained over so many matches.”