PSG vs Inter Milan Card Tips, Predictions

The Champions League rounds off the European club season on Saturday and a fiercely contested match should bring about plenty of work for the referee and one man who may well make himself known to the Romanian referee is the Turkish midfielder Hakan Calhanogllu.

To be fair, he’ll be well known to referees anyway having collected nine yellow cards in total this season, three of which have been in the Champions League.

Calhanoglu can be a hot head at the best of times and a match of this magnitude could certainly bring the temper out of him, especially if things aren’t going well for Inter in the contest.

Calhanoglu has been booked in his last four starts for Inter, which includes both legs of the semi-final against Barcelona.

The Turk averages 0.94 fouls per 90 in the Champions League and that rises to 1.01 in Serie A this term.

The beauty of taking Calhanoglu is he is perfectly capable of talking his way into the book so he looks a solid option to be shown a card here.

The second leg of the first card double leads us to another man who is no stranger to seeing a card in the form of the Italian defender Alessandro Bastoni.

Bastoni has the sort of foul numbers that should attract himself to Mr Kovacs. In the Champions League, he averages 1.37 fouls per 90 and he is even more of a serial offender in Serie A where that number rises to 1.64 per 90.

Bastoni has collected three yellow cards in the Champions League this term, including in the second leg of the semi-final with Barcelona and with the Inter defence probably wanting to put a marker down and show they won’t be overawed in this final, a couple of fouls early on could certainly get the attention of the referee.

We have seen throughout the competition how dynamic, tricky and pacy the PSG attack is and how it comes at teams from all angles so a mistimed tackle certainly wouldn’t be out of the question so putting the pair together brings out a perfectly acceptable double at close to 14/1.

Our second bet will focus more on the key battles in the match and this final could well be won and lost in the centre of the park which brings Henrikh Mkhitaryan into the game.

The midfielder is probably best known for the attacking side of his game rather than the defensive one but with PSG likely to dominate the ball, the Armenian could be out of his comfort zone in this encounter.

Mkhitaryan commits 1.23 fouls per 90 in Serie A and 1.25 in the Champions League and you would imagine he’ll be getting through a fair amount of defensive work here.

Usually players who aren’t as comfortable defensively are aggressive or reckless in their challenges and against a technically proficient PSG midfield and attacking unit it wouldn’t be out of the question for the Armenian to make a foul too many and make his way into the book.

Another key battle in this final could well be how the PSG centre-backs deal with what is likely to be two Inter Milan strikers in the form of Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.

One of those centre-backs is the Brazil international Marquinhos, who would certainly be wanting to put the Argentine in his place given the South American rivalry between the two countries, but keeping him quiet would take PSG a long way to the trophy.

Marquinhos has collected seven yellow cards in all competitions this season, three of which have come along in the Champions League.

Marquinhos commits 0.94 fouls per 90 in Ligue 1 this season and 0.73 per 90 in the Champions League.

Opposing him, Martinez averages 1.47 fouls won per 90 in Serie A and 1.76 in the Champions League while Thuram wins 1.41 fouls per 90 in Serie A this term and a huge 2.51 per 90 in this competition.

Both will be up against Marquinhos directly throughout the 90 minutes and therefore we should see the Brazilian caught up in enough trouble to collect a card, one which when put together with Mkhitaryan gives us a double at slightly more than 20/1.