MILAN: Runaway leaders Inter Milan continued their seemingly unstoppable march to the Serie A title after an early goal from Federico Dimarco and a late effort from Alexis Sanchez secured a 2-0 win at home against Empoli on Monday.

Inter are top of the table with 79 points, 14 ahead of city rivals AC Milan in second place with eight matches left to play. Their sizeable lead means that Inter could potentially clinch the Scudetto during the city derby against Milan on April 22.

Inter manager Simone Inzaghi, who celebrated his 100th victory with the club, lost his voice during the match, with assistant coach Massimiliano Farris taking over the post-match duties.

“The tactics are working very well, the mobility of our defenders, but also the ability of the midfielders to cover the spaces when the defenders go forward, that is all teamwork,” Farris told DAZN.

“We did better in the second half and the substitutions gave us a big hand to bring home the result, confirming the strength in depth of this squad.”

Inter have a huge lead on their rivals thanks in large part to academy product Dimarco, whose first-time strike in the sixth minute from Alessandro Bastoni’s neat clipped pass separated the hosts from their spirited opponents for most of the match.

It was Bastoni’s third assist in as many league matches and the Italy defender joked: “It was the worst of the lot, Dimarco’s finish made it look much better!

“We’re really happy with the win because we’ve just come off the international break and it’s never easy winning after travelling around the world,” added Bastoni.

Inzaghi’s side were far from the scintillating form they showed before being knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid last month.

And he rest of the first half ebbed and flowed, with Inter pressing to extend their lead, and Empoli goalkeeper Elia Caprile standing firm to deny them. Yet Empoli gained momentum towards the end of the half, creating chances that were narrowly off target.

Inter came back with renewed vigour after the break and Nicolo Barella was inches away from scoring after beating three Empoli defenders.

Substitute Sanchez was left unmarked to tap home Denzel Dumfries’ cross and double Inter’s lead in the 81st minute after a flowing passing move from the hosts.

Davide Frattesi almost grabbed a third for Inter with the last kick of the match, but the ball slipped just past the post.

Inter have dropped only two points since the turn of the year and Monday’s win was a good way to end what has been a difficult couple of weeks.

Francesco Acerbi was cleared late last month of racially abusing Napoli defender Juan Jesus, an ugly episode which dragged on through the international break as the Italy defender and Inter denied the accusation.

Acerbi started the game after avoiding a potential 10-match ban due to the Italian Football Federation’s disciplinary tribunal deciding there wasn’t enough evidence to punish him.

A fourth straight defeat without scoring a goal left Empoli back in the relegation zone on goals scored, swapping places with 17th-placed Frosinone.

“If that run had knocked our confidence you’d have seen it tonight with a bad performance but that didn’t happen,” said Empoli coach Davide Nicola.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2024