Inter Milan captured the Serie A title by beating AC Milan 2-1 on Monday and extending an unassailable lead at the top of the league with a sixth consecutive derby win. Goals from Francesco Acerbi and Marcus Thuram gave Inter a 17-point lead over nearest challengers Milan and secured their 20th league title with five matches of the season remaining. Inter last won Serie A in 2021, followed by AC Milan in 2022 and Napoli last year.

For Simone Inzaghi it was the first league title as a manager and on a cold, wet evening at San Siro he walked proudly into the crowd of 75,000 in front of a group of Inter “away” fans as they cheered. And they were setting off fireworks. From the stands at the final whistle.

Milan fought back in the final minutes after Fikayo Tomori scored a goal with 10 minutes remaining, but Inter got the title party started after a stormy end to the match, which included three red cards.

“I feel like crying because we have worked so hard, we deserve this happiness,” said captain Lautaro Martínez, crying.

“It has been amazing but we have to keep going because we have already won a lot of trophies and we want to win more.”

Inter become the second team to win 20 Italian league titles, and will have the second star attached to their jersey after Juventus, who lead the way with 36 league titles.

– in style –

Inzaghi’s team did just that, ravaging the rest of the division and becoming the first team to claim the title by winning the Milan derby and leaving their opposite number Pioli on the brink of the sack.

“According to the media he was struggling 14 months ago and look what he has achieved. I’m happy here, I work well and I think there is room for improvement in the team,” insisted 2022 Scudetto winner Pioli. “

Inter went into the distance at the end of the year, with outgoing champions Napoli crashing and burning at the start of the campaign and Milan falling short in the autumn.

Juve looked to be struggling but they fell short in February as Inter made 13 consecutive wins giving them hopes of repeating a deep run into the Champions League.

Inter failed in that mission as they were knocked out of the Champions League by Atlético Madrid in mid-March, but by that time the domestic damage had already been done.

The future also looks bright as Inzaghi, Martínez and Italy midfielder Nicolo Barella are all set to have their contracts renewed, while smart work in the transfer market and increased revenues have mitigated the significant financial damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Has helped to do.

Piotr Zielinski and Mehdi Taremi will arrive as free agents in the close season from Napoli and Porto, while big stars like Thuram should stay.

Thuram said, “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.”

Inter, nominally the away team on Monday, were headed for a title party in the 18th minute when Acerbi was left wide free to power home a header from Benjamin Pavard’s flick-on.

– Stormy finale –

Inter should have been ahead by two through Lautaro Martínez seven minutes later when Federico DiMarco’s perfect cut-back fell to the Argentine striker who lost his footing.

And his strike partner Thuram was equally culpable for Inter not extending their lead seven minutes before the break as he fired home a brilliant chance after being set up by Nicolo Barella.

But Thuram made up for the miss with a superb individual goal shortly after half-time, taking his tally to 12 in his first Serie A season.

France forward Thuram collected Alessandro Bastoni’s long pass from the left and eventually cut inside before drilling past Mike Maignan at the near post.

Yann Sommer did well to block a good shot from Theo Hernandez as Milan fans burst into flames in the stands.

The resulting smoke combined with persistent rain was creating a hazy atmosphere around San Siro, and as Inter looked set to see out the match, Tomori ensured it was a grand finale when he headed home the rebound. will be.

However Milan lost the match rather than equalise, with Theo Hernandez and Davide Calabria both receiving straight red cards in stoppage time.

Inter’s Denzel Dumfries was also sent off in the final minutes, but it would matter little to his team who kept dancing and jumping in front of the jubilant fans.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)