AC Milan 1-2 Inter: Worst fears confirmed as Nerazzurri win the title

AC Milan lost 2-1 against Inter in the derby at San Siro on Monday night, which meant that they won their 20th league title.

The damage was done with the two goals inside the first 50 minutes, with Francesco Acerbi scoring from a corner and then Marcus Thuram doubling the advantage with a shot from the edge of the box.

Fikayo Tomori’s late finish from close range halved the deficit but in truth Milan got what they deserved after another very questionable defensive performance.

Stefano Pioli opted to name a very bold line-up for the game, with Yunus Musah fielded on the right side of the attack, Christian Pulisic on the left and Rafael Leao the centre-forward, plus Yacine Adli in midfield.

The first half-chance of the game went to Inter, when Bastoni’s cross to the far post found Darmian who served the ball for Lautaro, but the Argentine fired his first time shot over the bar.

After a foul called against Inter, a scuffle immediately broke out between Yacine Adli and Mkhitaryan. The Frenchman called Barella who in his eyes had gone down too easily following contact from Theo Hernandez.

In the 15th minute Milan had their first meaningful foray forward when Ruben Loftus-Cheek tried to lay the ball off to Tijjani Reijnders but the clearance fell to Theo who had time to shoot, yet he dragged the effort well wide.

Four minutes later, Inter took the lead and it was through a terrible set piece goal to concede. A ball was whipped into the near post where Pavard flicked it on into a dangerous area, then Acerbi had absolutely nowhere near him so was able to head in past Maignan.

Just after 24 minutes it really should have been 2-0 to Inter. Thuram was given time to cross from the left side and put a dangerous ball into the six-yard box where Lautaro was waiting with most of the net to aim at, but his fired well over the bar.

Not long before the half-hour mark Milan had their first big chance to score and it fell to Leao. Musah did brilliantly to lead a counter-attack down the right and feed the Portuguese forward, who got in isolation with his man and shifted onto his left but fired straight at Sommer.

There were two excellent saves by the two goalkeepers, starting with Sommer. Leao found Loftus-Cheek who spread the ball wide for Musah, whose low cross was fired first time by Calabria and was well stopped by the Swiss international.

On the counter-attack Tomori made a very risky clearance that fell straight to Mkhitaryan giving him the opportunity to double the lead from an excellent position, yet his shot was close to Maignan who parried away.

Four minutes into the second half, Inter got their second goal of the game. A ball over the top saw Thuram and Tomori battle for it, and the former regathered possession before cutting inside onto his right and firing inside the bottom left corner with a shot that seemed to wrong-foot Maignan.

Milan once again tried to react to the goal. Theo’s diagonal shot from outside the area was central but powerful enough to put Sommer in difficulty, though he gathered at the second attempt.

There was a double substitution in the 68th minute as Loftus-Cheek and Adli come off, with Samuel Chukwueze and Ismael Bennacer taking their place.

In the 77th minute, a further change came for Milan as Noah Okafor came on for Musah as Pioli went all-out attack in an attempt to try and salvage things.

With 10 minutes left, Milan got themselves back into the game. A nice ball from Chukwueze for Leao saw the winger head it back into the centre where Gabbia nodded it at Sommer and just when it looked like the ball had bounced away off the post Tomori was there to finish from close range.

The final flashpoint came deep in added time when a seemingly innocuous foul resulted in Theo and Dumfries coming face to face and grabbing each other near the neck, and they were both sent off.

There was another red card late in the game when Calabria was adjudged to have elbowed Dimarco in the face inside the box, and in the end the game would drift out without incident.