Cristian Chivu says he is starting to enjoy his role as Inter head coach before his side visit Verona in Sunday's Serie A clash.

Inter are third in the Italian top flight after Wednesday's 3-0 win over 10-man Fiorentina.

They trail defending champions, and current league leaders, Napoli by three points ahead of their trip to winless Verona.

But Chivu is, at least, finding some comfort in his new role as he looks to help Inter climb the table further.

"I'm starting to enjoy being a coach," Chivu said. "At the beginning of the experience, I was very worried, but now I'm more relaxed.

"I've understood that Inter has a duty to overcome difficult moments to pursue the dream."

As for building on the Fiorentina thumping, Chivu added: "We had the right maturity to understand the moments of a match and I'm very happy [for my players] because it's a mature team, a strong team that wants to make its mark.

"We were mature and patient in finding the right openings to try and destabilise their defence.

"Maybe we were a bit fussy in the first half, but in the second, we added what we'd been missing before. With this win, we're back on track."

Hosts Verona are yet to win any of their nine games so far in Serie A this campaign, having fallen to a 3-1 defeat against Como last time out on Wednesday.

Paolo Zanetti's side have managed five draws in the league, leaving them 18th in the table before the arrival of Italian giants Inter.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Verona – Suat Serdar

Suat Serdar has scored twice in nine Serie A games this campaign, equalling his own record in a single campaign, having also scored two last term in 22 matches.

All four of his Serie A goals have come away from home, however, and Serdar will be keen to change that record here.

Inter – Lautaro Martinez

Lautaro Martínez boasts his second-best minutes-per-goal ratio in Serie A against Verona, scoring one every 99 minutes (six goals in 596 minutes). 

Among the 16 teams he has faced for at least 500 minutes in the competition, only against Cagliari has he managed better (one goal every 73 minutes).

MATCH PREDICTION – INTER WIN

Inter are unbeaten in their last 28 Serie A matches against Verona (W23 D5), only managing a longer such streak in the competition against Sampdoria (30 between 1961 and 1977).

Verona are also yet to win this season (D5 L4) and could remain without a win in their first 10 Serie A games of a campaign for only the third time, after 2015-16 (D5 L5) and 1989-90 (D4 L6).

Worryingly for the hosts, both of those seasons ended with relegation to Serie B, and turning that tide around could prove tough here.

Verona have conceded at least two goals in each of their last 13 home games against Inter in this division (37 goals in total, 2.8 on average).

That is already the longest streak of home games with at least two goals conceded in the competition by a team against a single opponent, though Inter's run on the road may give the home side optimism.

Inter have lost five of their last 12 top-flight away games (W5 D2), as many as in their previous 45 (W31 D9), but will hope to improve on that run with a victory on Sunday.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Verona – 15.5%

Draw – 20.1%

Inter win – 64.4%