Inter Milan, the new Italian champion, has found its pet peeve. It was the poorly ranked Sassuolo who had already beaten him in September and who inflicted his second defeat of the season in Serie A (1-0) on Saturday during the 35th day. Sassuolo achieved what AC Milan, Juventus Turin or even outgoing champion Naples failed to do this season: beat Inter Milan, moreover twice. Inter had already lost (2-1) on September 27 during the 6th day in its San Siro stadium against the modest club from Emilia-Romagna.
Since then, Sassuolo has plunged in the rankings, to the point of compromising its maintenance (19th) and Inter has been crowned Italian champion for the 20th time. But it was again the Neroverdi who emerged victorious thanks to a goal from their French striker Armand Laurienté, his fourth goal in a month. Inter, without their striker Marcus Thuram and their goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who remained on the bench, monopolized the ball, but very quickly seemed to run out of ideas. Simone Inzaghi’s side ended an impressive run of 42 consecutive league matches with at least one goal scored.
A somewhat wasted euphoria
“We started this match badly, we deserved to equalize at the end of the first half, but we didn’t create enough chances in the end. We have to take our hats off to a great Sassuolo team“, analyzed the Italian technician on the Sky Sport channel. “We’re not used to losing, it hurts us and spoils the euphoria of the last few days a little, but we have to finish this season well“, he added.
Inter remains well ahead of Serie A with a lead of 19 points over AC Milan and 24 points over Juve who face Genoa and AS Roma respectively on Sunday. After this success, its seventh of the season, Sassuolo is still 19th, but has returned to two points behind 17th and first non-relegation place, Empoli, who have played one match less.
