Ajax vs Inter Milan Prediction: Italians could come unstuck in Amsterdam

Two multiple-time winners of the Uefa Champions League/European Cup, Ajax and Inter Milan, face off against each other on Wednesday (20:00 BST, TNT Sports 5) in the first gameweek of this season's league phase.

Below are my Ajax vs Inter Milan predictions, alongside all the essential team news and match odds, ahead of this midweek meeting at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam.

Team News

Branco van den Boomen (back) misses out for Ajax due to injury, but otherwise, Johnny Heitinga appears to have a full squad to choose from on Wednesday.

Kian Fitz-Jim, Oscar Gloukh and Raul Moro will all be hoping to earn promotions to the starting XI, while Liverpool loanee James McConnell could make his full debut after appearing as a second-half substitute in Saturday's 3-1 Eredivisie win over Zwolle.

Football Odds

Argentine defender Tomas Palacios, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Monza and has been on the bench for Inter's first three league games this term, has been left out of I Nerazzurri's Champions League squad, so he will play no part on Wednesday.

Inter head coach Cristian Chivu doesn't have any injuries or suspensions to contend with, but the Romanian could make several changes to his starting XI following Saturday's 4-3 defeat to Juventus in the Derby d'Italia.

Stefan de Vrij, Federico Dimarco, Matteo Darmian, Piotr Zielinski and Ange-Yoan Bonny are all potential inclusions in the line-up to face Ajax.

Today's Football Fixtures

Ajax vs Inter Milan Odds

Ajax are 3/1, or a 25% chance, to kick their league phase campaign off with a win, while Inter are 10/11 to claim all three points, implying a 52.4% probability of success; the draw is available at 11/4.

Double Chance & Both Teams to Score - Ajax or Draw @ 7/4

Ajax have made an unbeaten start to the Eredivisie season, winning all three home games and drawing their two away matches.

Inter, on the other hand, won their first game before losing back-to-back against Udinese and Juventus, falling 2-1 at home to the former and 4-3 away to the latter.  This comes after an unconvincing 2025 Fifa Club World Cup campaign in the USA, where they were held by Monterrey (1-1) and only edged past the Urawa Red Diamonds (2-1) and River Plate (2-0), before being knocked out 2-0 by Fluminense in the last 16.

Chivu is already under pressure in the Nerazzurri hotseat, and he could really do with a positive result in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

However, I think his confidence-stricken side could struggle under the bright lights of the Johan Cruyff Arena.

While this is certainly no vintage Ajax team, and rookie boss Heitinga is yet to face any of the Netherlands' other heavyweight clubs, Feyenoord or PSV Eindhoven, he's made a solid start to life as head coach, winning three of his first five games and seeing his side keep two clean sheets at home, although both away matches have ended in score draws.

Inter hit Torino for five on the opening weekend and scored four times across defeats to Udinese and Juventus, making the reigning Italian league champions the top scorers in Serie A, so Chivu should be confident of his charges at least breaching the Ajax back line on Wednesday.

Whether they can take all three points back to Milan, though, I have my doubts. Inter are vulnerable, and with Ajax facing tricky trips to Marseille and Chelsea next in the league phase, the Dutch giants will be desperate to achieve a positive result themselves.

After two seasons out of the competition, there should be a raucous atmosphere in the Johan Cruyff Arena, and that could spur the home side on to all three points.

I'll take a more cautious approach, though, and back Ajax in the Double Chance & Both Teams to Score market. This selection has landed in three of their last four games, while Inter have scored multiple goals in each of their last two matches and still ended up on the losing side in both.

Bet Builder - Player to Score a Header - Wout Weghorst (AJA), Player 1+ Assists - Steven Berghuis (AJA) @ 28/1

It's no secret that Inter are defensively fragile at the moment, and they look particularly vulnerable when balls are delivered into their penalty area. Juve's first goal on Saturday was from a clipped ball to the back post, which was subsequently played into the middle of the 18-yard box, where Lloyd Kelly was on hand to turn home.

Juve's third goal, scored by Khephren Thuram, was a header from a free-kick whipped into their area. It was the third headed goal that Inter have conceded in seven games under Chivu, with Monterrey's Sergio Ramos scoring the first from a corner in the group stage of the Club World Cup, and Fluminense's German Cano nodding in from a deflected cross in the last 16 of the same competition.

Inter may be forced to deal with the aerial threat of 6ft6in striker Wout Weghorst on Wednesday, and the Ajax man will surely be licking his lips after seeing the ease with which Thuram scored his header in Turin on Saturday.

Weghorst struck 11 times in his first season at Ajax, and he got off the mark early on in the 2025/26 campaign, bagging a brace in the opening weekend win over Telstar on August 10, before netting his third in the 2-0 victory over Heracles two weeks later.

Both of his goals against Telstar were set up by Steven Berghuis, who provided eight assists last season, including three in the Europa League.

Weghorst hit the Telstar woodwork with a 38th-minute header in Amsterdam before finding the net with his head in the 83rd minute, with Berghuis delivering the inswinging corner.

I can see this link-up working well again on Wednesday, so 28/1 for Weghorst to score a header, and for Berghuis to provide an assist - the two aren't mutually exclusive - is screaming out to me.

Offers

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