Inter Milan added a second star to their badge as they won their 20th Scudetto on April 22, 2024 in a dramatic fashion. The Nerazzuri clinched the title by defeating rivals AC Milan 2-1 at the San Siro. It’s also Simone Inzaghi’s first Scudetto as Inter Milan’s head coach and what a run they have had. Inter almost completely dominated the Serie A this season. The Nerazzuri ran away with the league quite early on in the season in a similar manner to Bayer Leverkusen minus the unbeaten streak. They won the league with five games left.
Their historic win puts them above AC Milan as the club with the second most Serie A titles in history. The rival clubs were previously tied at 19 trophies but now, Inter has 20. While both clubs are still far behind Juventus who have 36 Serie A titles to their name, it’s always nice to be better than your rival even if it’s by a single point or in this case a single trophy.
So far, Inter Milan has amassed 89 points from 35 Serie A games. They have won 28 games, drawn five, and lost only two all season. They’ve also scored the most goals in the league (81) and conceded the least (19) putting their goal difference (62) far above rivals and second-placed AC Milan (25). Their dominance both in attack and defense points to how well-rounded and balanced the team is. They are a wall defensively and still very dangerous on the offense with their attack pairing of Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez both of whom have been very important to the club’s dominance this season. They beat former champions Napoli 3-0 and earlier in the season demolished rivals AC Milan 5-1. Inter wasn’t just picking up points, they were embarrassing the other Serie A teams they came up against.
Simone Inzaghi has done marvelous work with Inter Milan this season considering the number of top talents that have exited the club in the past three seasons following Antonio Conté’s title-winning 2020/2021 season. They had to find a new striker after the exit of Romelu Lukaku as well as a new goalkeeper after Andre Onana moved to Manchester United. They also lost Edin Dzeko, Milan Skriniar, Marcelo Brozovic, and Alexis Sanchez since their last Scudetto win. These were players who were part of their starting lineup and played an important part in the Nerazzurri triumph of 2021. Even with this setback and financial constraints, Inzaghi has managed to make tasty lemonade out of the lemons he was handed. He has made the best of a bad situation; reaching the Champions League finals last season and dominantly winning the Serie A this season.
This is the third season in a row that a different club has won the Serie A. AC Milan won it in 2022, Napoli in 2023, and now Inter Milan in 2024. The variety in winners points to the relative balance in the Serie A compared with the other top European Leagues. The only League that has similar competition this season is probably the Premier League and the three-horse race of Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man City to the title. It also probably contributed to their rise to second place in the latest ranking of the top five European leagues. The Serie A is now second place behind the Premier League while La Liga has fallen to third place.
While their performances didn’t exactly translate to the Champions League this season as they were knocked out relatively early, Inzaghi and this Inter Milan team are definitely cooking up something in their kitchen. Their performance next season in the Champions League will probably be better and they may actually challenge for the title again. They’re currently the best team in Italy by a mile and after the boost from the Serie A victory, a restful holiday, and the addition of new players to the team, Inter will probably be playing better football next season; a scary possibility for the other Serie A teams.
How do you think they’ll perform in Europe next season?