Inter have become the fixture that most persistently interrupts Gian Piero Gasperini’s work. As Roma prepare for another meeting with the Nerazzurri, the giallorosso coach carries a record that reaches back eight years: since his last victory over Inter in 2018, there have been five draws and 12 defeats.
A victory from another Inter era
- Gasperini’s most recent win against Inter came in Bergamo in 2018, when his Atalanta scored four times against Luciano Spalletti’s side.
- Papu Gomez led an Atalanta group facing an Inter squad that still included Mauro Icardi, Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic and Samir Handanovic.
- Lautaro Martinez is the only member of that Inter squad still in the present group. He did not leave the bench that day, alongside Joao Mario and Dalbert.
- Since then, Gasperini has not beaten Inter in any competition meeting.
The broader figures underline the scale of the problem. Across the last 17 matches against Inter, Gasperini has drawn five and lost 12. Ten of those defeats have arrived consecutively between 2022 and 2026.
Last season brought a 1-0 defeat in the first meeting and a 5-2 loss on Easter Sunday in the return game, a result that became an important moment in Inter’s route towards the Scudetto. Over the most recent ten encounters, Gasperini’s teams have conceded 27 goals.
Why Inter have proved such difficult opponents
Over his entire managerial career, Gasperini has beaten Inter five times: three victories came while he was Genoa coach and two with Atalanta. There is a pattern in four of those successes. Inter used a four-man defence and a three-player attacking line on each of those occasions.
- Inter were coached by Walter Mazzarri in 2014.
- Roberto Mancini and Frank de Boer were in charge for the wins recorded in 2015 and 2016.
- Spalletti was Inter coach for the 2018 defeat in Bergamo.
The exception was the first of Gasperini’s five wins. Mazzarri used a 3-5-2, matching Gasperini’s system, when Antonelli scored the only goal in a 1-0 result.
Since then, the Roma coach has lost to Inter sides led by Antonio Conte, Simone Inzaghi and Cristian Chivu. Against Inzaghi’s Inter, his teams endured a run of eight goals conceded without reply spanning the final return fixture of 2023-24 and the first league meeting of 2024-25. There was also a sequence of five matches in which they failed to score against the Nerazzurri.
Several of those games were shaped early, with Inter finding a goal in the opening period or soon after kick-off. The issue has not simply been the individual level of Inter’s players, but the way their attacking structure has challenged Gasperini’s aggressive approach.
The pressure test for Roma
Gasperini’s sides are built to press high. Centre-backs step forward, midfielders follow them into duels, and the team look to drive attacks through the wide areas. When that aggression is bypassed, the structure can become exposed.
Andrea Stramaccioni highlighted one possible detail of the coming contest. “Gasperini usually adjusts the point of his front line, with one player tasked with Zielinski,” he said, naming Matias Soulé, Lorenzo Pellegrini’s possible alternatives and Niccolo Pisilli among the types of player who could take that responsibility.
Stramaccioni also pointed to Inter’s attacking square as a recurring concern. In last season’s first meeting, he noted, Evan Ndicka was asked to follow Ange-Yoan Bonny and found the task difficult. Similar problems, he argued, had appeared against Conte’s Inter.
Chivu’s Inter scored six goals against Roma across two matches last season, with set pieces also a significant part of the Nerazzurri threat. For Gasperini, this is therefore more than a difficult recent record. It is another opportunity to solve an opponent whose structure has repeatedly unsettled his teams, from Genoa and Atalanta to his present chapter in Rome.
