Inter are crowned winter champions as Napoli slump to another defeat

(Football news) Inter were crowned the winter champions as they narrowly beat Torino 1-0. In the first half, Denzel Dumfries struck after 30 minutes as he coolly finished off a swift counter-attack from their own box. Torino put up a tough fight but could not find a way through against Inter as they kept a sixth consecutive league clean sheet. Simone Inzaghi's side were crowned at the mid-season break as 'winter champions', and moved up to 46 points, seven clear of AC Milan and Napoli. It was Inter's 32nd league win of 2021, a total only bettered before in a calendar year in Serie A by Juventus in 2016 with 33. Inter hit a formidable run of league form after the international break as they won all seven of their matches by an aggregate score of 20-2. They became only the second team in the last 50 years to score 49 goals in the first half of the season after Atalanta did it in 2019-20.

"It was an important win, we knew that Torino are a difficult team to face. We did well with our preparation over the last few days. We knew about their ferocious pressing and that they would try to disrupt our game.We played a great match and barely risked anything. We are very satisfied with how we have ended the year." Inzaghi said.

AC Milan finished second at the end of the year as they won 4-2 against Empoli. In the first half, Franck Kessie was deployed in a more advanced attacking midfield position, and excelled in the role by scoring twice, either side of Nedim Bajrami's goal for Empoli. In the second half Alessandro Florenzi free kick and Theo Hernandez extended their lead before Andrea Pinamonti pulled a goal back for Empoli from the penalty spot. Milan go into the winter break in second place with 42 points, four behind leaders Inter. It was Franck Kessie’s 13th league goal of 2021, which is the most by a Milan midfielder in a calendar year since Kaka had scored 15 in 2008. With this result they opened up a three point lead over Napoli and a four point lead over Atalanta in fourth.

"Getting back to winning was what counted today. We needed it for the league table and for our confidence," Stefano Pioli said.

Napoli ended the year with a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Spezia as they further lost pace for the Scudetto race. Napoli reached the highs of last week to the lows of this week as a Juan Jesus own goal secured an important victory for Spezia, some easy chances missed and two disallowed efforts saw Spezia earn three crucial away points for them. Spezia created history as they became the first side to win a Serie A match without registering a shot on target. Napoli had 26 efforts on goal against Spezia as they couldn’t break the deadlock. Napoli have now fired 66 shots in their past three Serie A games and only scored once as Elif Elmas' goal in the victory over Milan was the only goal they scored. Napoli’s recent struggles have been related to the injury crisis the club is going through as key players like Lorenzo Insigne who was still out after testing positive for COVID-19, with Victor Osimhen, Kalidou Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz were all injured.

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