Inter Milan could not have imagined a more satisfying way to win 20th Scudetto
How else could it end but like this: tempers boiling over and the red card being shown to one player after another as Inter sealed their 20th league title with a win over neighbours Milan?
Denzel Dumfries and Théo Hernández were first to be sent off after squaring up in midfield at the start of injury time. Milan’s Davide Calabria followed moments later for throwing a forearm into the face of Davide Frattesi at a corner.
And then the final whistle went, transforming a ruck into revelry as the rest of Inter’s players and staff rushed from the dugout to join their colleagues on San Siro’s pitch. They carried giant Scudetto shields displaying the No 20 against the colours of the Italian flag.
The two Milan clubs began this season tied on 19 league titles apiece. Now Inter will be the first to affix a second gold star to their club badge.
They could scarcely have imagined a more satisfying way to earn it. Never before had a Serie A champion been crowned in a Milan derby, Inter blowing a previous opportunity when they lost 2-1 to their rivals in May 2008.
On Monday, that scoreline was reversed, Francesco Acerbi and Marcus Thuram setting the Nerazzurri on their way before Fikayo Tomori’s 80th-minute header created a fraught finish.
A Milan equaliser would only have delayed the inevitable. Inter’s title has effectively been sewn up ever since the 1-0 win over Juventus at the start of February that dispelled whatever magic had allowed Massimiliano Allegri’s modest team to keep pace. A one-point gap between those clubs became 20 over the next two months.
Milan rose to second but, to borrow the framing that their former manager, Arrigo Sacchi, used after last season’s Champions League semi-final, they were a Fiat Cinquecento
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