MILAN: Hakan Calhan­oglu scored twice to give newly-crowned Serie A champions Inter Milan a comfortable 2-0 win over 10-man Torino on Sunday, extending their unbeaten league run to 28 games.

It was a party atmosphere at the San Siro with confetti and fireworks before kickoff as the Inter fans continued to celebrate the Scudetto title they secured on Monday with a 2-1 derby win over AC Milan, Inter have 89 points, 19 clear of Milan with four games remaining.

The Torino players gave Inter a guard of honour as they walked on to the pitch and Inter coach Simone Inzaghi answered the crowd’s call for him to celebrate with them.

In the first Serie A game to be officiated by an all-female refereeing team, four minutes after halftime Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi sent off Torino’s Adrien Tameze for a foul on Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Inter made the breakthrough seven minutes later when Mkhitaryan passed to Calhanoglu in the area who drove a shot into the bottom corner.

Calhanoglu converted a penalty four minutes later after a foul on Marcus Thuram and the party will continue into the evening as the Inter players parade through the streets of Milan on open top buses.

Torino remained 10th in the standings on 46 points.

Tens of thousands of fans dressed in black and blue flooded the streets of Milan afterwards as the team celebrated their 20th Serie A title, parading in an open-air bus.

Leaving the San Siro after the match, the team showed off their Scudetto from the bus before moving the party to Piazza Duomo, a well-known celebration spot in the city.

Elsewhere, Tammy Abraham snatched a potentially crucial point in the battle to reach the Champions League with his first goal in a year which earned AS Roma a 2-2 draw at Napoli.

England international Abraham, who had last scored on April 29 last year, missed almost the whole of this season after tearing knee ligaments at the end of the last campaign.

But the substitute striker was on hand in the 88th minute to nod home a perfect flick-on at a corner from Evan Ndicka, who started in defence after being cleared to play following his on-pitch collapse at Udinese earlier this month.

Roma, who took lead in the 59th minute through Paulo Dybala’s penalty before being pegged back by Mathias Olivera’s deflected strike and a Victor Osimhen spot-kick, are fifth and in the final Champions League spot.

Daniele De Rossi’s team are four points behind fourth-placed Bologna following their 1-1 home draw with relegation-threatened Udinese.

Atalanta, who have a game in hand on all of their top-five rivals, are two points behind Roma after a 2-0 win over Empoli.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2024