Football
Inter win Milan derby to claim 20th Serie A title
Inter Milan secured their 20th Serie A title on Monday in the sweetest of ways possible – with a hard-fought 2-1 win in the Milan derby.
Inter knew going into Monday’s clash with city rivals AC Milan that three points would give them an unassailable lead at the top of the Serie A standings with five games to spare.
Federico Dimarco’s out-swinging corner was flicked on by Benjamin Pavard at the front post, with the ball falling perfectly into the path of an unmarked Acerbi who headed home from inside the six-yard box gave Inter the lead in the 18th minute of the game.
Inter continued to look the more threatening of the two sides as the first half progressed, with Lautaro Martinez spurning a glorious opportunity from close range, while at the other end, Yann Sommer had to be alert to thwart Rafael Leao’s low effort.
The open nature of the contest showed no signs of slowing down before half-time as Thuram fired wastefully wide for Inzaghi’s side and Davide Calabria saw a sharp strike parried away by Sommer.
Thuram showed impressive speed and strength in the early minutes of the second half to power past Fikayo Tomori, and the Nerazzurri frontman unleashed a clinical strike into the bottom corner from range for his 12th league goal of the campaign.
With 10 minutes remaining, however, Tomori pulled a goal back for the hosts with a simple close-range header after Christian Pulisic’s initial effort had been tipped onto the post by Sommer.
Reacting to the teams latest achievement, Inter’s hitman, Lautaro Martinez while speaking to reporters in a tearful mood said, “I feel like crying because we worked so hard, we deserve this joy.
“It’s been wonderful but we have to keep going because we’ve already won a lot of trophies and we want to win many more.”
“Crazy feeling, crazy game. We wanted to do it for our fans and we did it. It’s my first league title and I’m very proud of it,” added Marcus Thuram, one of Inter’s goalscorers on Monday.
With just one loss in the opening 33 rounds and only 18 goals conceded, it’s been an incredible campaign for Simone Inzaghi’s side to date and one of the most dominant seasons in Serie A in living memory.
While Inter can no longer match the most points tallied in a single season (102 by Juventus in 2013/14), they can still become only the second team to surpass 100 points.
Marcus Thuram celebrates after scoring Inter’s second goal
AFP
Claiming the Scudetto in the derby has made this brilliant league triumph that much better. What’s more, Inter didn’t just beat Milan for the second time this season on Monday (they smashed them 5-1 in September), they also became the first of the two Milanese giants to reach 20 league titles in the process.
Previously, both clubs were level with 19 Scuddetti each. Inter have thus secured some unique bragging rights, although Juventus have by far and away the most championships with 36.
