Inter Milan won Serie A on Monday after beating AC Milan 2-1 and creating an unassailable lead at the top of the league with their sixth straight derby victory.
Goals from Francesco Acerbi and Marcus Thuram gave Inter a
17-point advantage over closest challengers Milan and secured their 20th league
crown with five matches of the season remaining.
Simone Inzaghi won the first league title of his managerial
career on a cold, soaking wet evening at the San Siro where a clutch of Inter’s
“away” fans in the 75,000 crowd roared in delight at the final whistle.
Milan made a fight of it in the final moments after Fikayo
Tomori pulled one back with 10 minutes remaining but Inter held out to kick off
a title party.
Inter have become the second team to win 20 Italian league
titles and will have a second star stitched onto their jersey, after Juventus
who are way out in the lead with 36 league crowns.
Inzaghi’s team did it style, laying waste to the rest of the
division and becoming the first team to claim the title by winning the Milan
derby.
With outgoing champions Napoli crashing and burning early in
the campaign and Milan falling away in the autumn Inter raced off into the
distance at the turn of the year.
Juventus looked like putting up a fight but they collapsed
in February just as Inter strung together a run of 13 wins which also gave them
hope of repeating a deep run in the Champions League.
Inter failed in that mission as they were knocked out of the
Champions League by Atletico Madrid in mid-March, but by that time the domestic
damage had already been done.
The future looks bright too as Inzaghi, captain Lautaro
Martinez and Italy midfielder Nicolo Barella are all set to renew their
contracts while smart work in the transfer market and increased revenue has
helped mitigate significant financial harm wrought by the Covid-29 pandemic.
Piotr Zielinski and Medhi Taremi will arrive from Napoli and
Porto as free agents in the close season while big stars like Marcus Thuram
should stay.
Off the pitch Inter’s president Steven Zhang is trying to
make sure that investment fund Oaktree don’t take control of the club with
non-repayment of an emergency loan — granted in 2021 — next month.
Zhang is looking at taking out another loan with fellow US
fund Pimco so that Inter can pay Oaktree loan and ensure that the club don’t
wind up owned by Oaktree as Milan did with Elliott in 2018.
AFP
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