(Football news) The giants of Calcio gather at San Siro, where Inter leads Juve by one point in the standings and the Nerazzurri have one game remaining. Inter Milan is in excellent form heading into a heavyweight match that might define the Italian title race. They have won five straight games, including two in Saudi Arabia where they successfully defended the Supercoppa Italiana to begin 2024.
The Nerazzurri haven’t won their opening six games of a calendar year in about 17 years, but they may now equal that accomplishment by defeating their bitter rivals in the 248th Derby d’Italia.
Simone Inzaghi’s side have found the net in all of their 21 top-flight fixtures this term, and by following last week’s 1-0 win over Fiorentina with another goalscoring performance, they would become just the second club ever to score in 22 straight games from the start of a Serie A season – joining Juventus.
Inter, who claimed a third consecutive Supercoppa by beating Napoli last month, have had the edge over Juve in recent cup clashes and are still most pundits’ favourites to top the league despite their old foes’ recent resurgence.
A two-horse race for the Scudetto appears to be unfolding – with only AC Milan within range of the two main contenders, but already a long way back – so the stakes could not be much higher on Sunday evening.
While Inter have been crowned champions and pipped Juventus to Coppa Italia and Supercoppa glory since the Bianconeri’s relentless run of success abruptly ended three years ago, they have recently found beating them in Serie A more challenging.
Juventus has only managed seven points out of a possible nine in their last three league encounters with Inter, including a 1-1 draw in the rematch in November in Turin thanks to goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Lautaro Martinez.
After spending a protracted period of time in the shadow of the Nerazzurri, victory in Milan would now propel them beyond their former rivals and back to the top of Serie A.
With 53 points thus far in the season, Max Allegri’s team will undoubtedly be feeling confident heading into San Siro. In the ten previous instances that Juve has amassed this many points at this time in the season, they have finished first.
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