When the Italian champions are crowned in Serie A, it is usually May and bright sunshine. Inter Milan were in a particularly hurry this year and secured the title five match days before the end of the season on an uncomfortable April evening. On Monday they won 2-1 in the city derby against AC Milan.
With a 17-point lead, coach Simone Inzaghi’s team can no longer be caught. It poured rain in Lombardy on Monday, and in the evening the infamous Milanese fog even covered the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. City rivals AC Milan, nominally the home team, did not favor the spontaneous celebrations. Instead of “We are the champions,” penetrating techno music played after the game ended.
In the coming season, Inter can now sew the Scudetto, the championship pennant in the Italian national colors, onto their jersey again, as well as a second star, which marks the 20th championship title in the club’s history. Despite their deep dislike for their city rivals, the Milanisti in the Curva Sud pointed out with a banner that only 19 of the 20 titles were won on the pitch.
“Inter in paradise”
The 2005/06 championship was lost to Juventus Turin as a result of the “Calciopoli” manipulation scandal and subsequently recognized to Inter. The two clubs remained level, with Milan also winning 19 times. Of course, the winning team had no leisure for such quibbles.
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The superiority in the city derby, as in the entire season, was overwhelming. Defender Francesco Acerbi gave Inter the lead with a header after an assist from Benjamin Pavard (18th minute). Marcus Thuram increased the score to 2-0 in the 49th minute. Fikayo Tomori’s goal (80′) came too late. Three red cards in the final phase, two of them for Milan, showed the deep frustration of the defeated team. There was no stopping Inter after the final whistle. “Inter in paradise,” was the headline in the newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday. “Inter in the stars”, the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Coach Simone Inzaghi, now slightly gray, stood out from the crowd of exuberant men with a particularly stunned look. The brother of the legendary Milan striker Filippo was already in the shadow of others as a player at Lazio. The 48-year-old also had to work particularly hard as a coach. It was only Inter’s entry into the Champions League final in 2023 that made the skeptics sit up and take notice and anticipated the current triumph.
In his first year as coach in Milan in 2021/22, his team had lost a championship that was believed to be certain shortly before the end, and local rivals AC Milan won the title. Last year, twelve defeats and an almost invincible opponent, SSC Napoli, stood in the way of success. For Inzaghi, the championship title is also a victory against his critics.
Success factor: Former Gladbach player Marcus Thuram shines in Milan.dpa
Experts now want to see an evolution of the Italian style, which is based on stability, at Inter. Inzaghi’s team always plays offensively, but never loses their balance. Inter scored the most goals and conceded the fewest. It was “the true further development of the best Italian school,” wrote the Corriere della Sera.
In addition to Italian national players such as Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolò Barella and Federico Dimarco, who have internalized Inzaghi’s football, Inter’s strike duo also stands out. Marcus Thuram, son of France legend Lilian, who came to Inter from Mönchengladbach in the summer, complements captain Lautaro Martinez perfectly. The 26-year-old Thuram has contributed twelve goals and eleven assists so far, Martinez has already scored 23 times.
Inzaghi’s masterpiece cannot be emphasized enough when you also consider Inter’s economically difficult starting position. The Chinese ownership group Suning is squeezing Inter with 380 million euros in debt. Departures were countered by legendary sports director Giuseppe Marotta with successful transfers from the Bundesliga (Thuram, Yann Sommer, Benjamin Pavard) or the coach’s imagination. Hakan Calhanoglu, who was born in Mannheim, is playing his best season to date as a director in front of the defense and no longer offensively behind the tips. He replaces playmaker Marcelo Brozovic, who moved to Saudi Arabia at the start of the season.
Things have also come full circle for Calhanoglu (30). In 2021 he moved from AC Milan to champions Inter, and as soon as he left, Milan won the title. The ridicule he received as a result obviously hurt. “Always calm, always patient, always focused and now rewarded,” the player wrote on Instagram. He also posted a picture of himself in a master pose, with angry Milanisti in the background.