Inter Milan set the seal on a season of domestic dominance with an ill-tempered 2-1 victory over bitter rivals AC Milan to claim a 20th Serie A title.
Simone Inzaghi’s side have lost just once in the league this season and secured the Scudetto with five games to spare thanks to goals from Francesco Acerbi and Marcus Thuram.
Fikayo Tomori pulled a goal back with 10 minutes left to set up a potentially nervy finish, but the most notable action was a 93rd-minute melee – sparked by some needless pushing and shoving between Denzel Dumfries and Theo Hernandez – which saw both men sent off.
And Milan’s miserable evening was compounded when Davide Calabria was also shown a red card for swinging an arm into the face of Davide Frattesi as they waited for a corner.
The sides came into the game level on 19 titles each, but Stefano Pioli’s side were 14 points adrift of Inter and simply hoping to delay Inter’s title celebrations for a few days in the Derby della Madonnina.
That looked a forlorn task with Inter having scored the most goals in Serie A this season while also boasting the meanest defence and, after Lautaro Martinez blazed an early volley well over, they duly took the lead in the 18th minute.
Federico Dimarco’s outswinging corner was flicked on at the near post by Benjamin Pavard and Acerbi was somehow left unmarked to head home from close range.
Inter should have doubled their lead in the 25th minute when a delightful flick from Thuram allowed Dimarco to get to the byline and pull the ball back for Martinez, but again he could only direct his shot high and wide of Mike Maignan’s goal.
Milan briefly threatened on the counter-attack as Rafael Leao’s shot brought a decent save from Yann Sommer, but at the other end Thuram side-footed agonisingly wide after a neat exchange of passes with Nicolo Barella.
Sommer was called into action again to save a goalbound effort from Calabria and the ball was quickly swept down field to allow Henrikh Mkhitaryan to test the reactions of Maignan, who proved equal to the task.
Inter had to wait just four minutes after the interval to extend their lead however, Thuram taking full advantage of the Milan defence backing off to fire a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Milan offered little in the way of an attacking threat until 10 minutes from the end when substitute Samuel Chukwueze’s cross was headed back across goal by Leao, Matteo Gabbia’s header was turned on to the post by Sommer and Tomori was ideally placed to head into the empty net.
Houston Dynamo v St. Louis City: Carnell eager to get going after extended break
Bradley Carnell is eager to get going again when St. Louis City return to MLS action against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday, two weeks on from their last game.
St. Louis were last in action on April 21, when Tomas Totland's last-gasp equaliser saw them claim a 3-3 draw against rivals Sporting Kansas City.
Carnell's team have only lost one of their last eight MLS games, though five of those have finished level to leave them ninth in the Western Conference standings, one point behind the Dynamo.
Speaking about the challenges of their long wait for a game, Carnell said: "The week off was nice, it gave us some time to plan and prep for the next few weeks and where we're going.
"There's going to be a ton of games so it's really important for us to do that. We can't change the calendar and it is what it is.
"We're excited about the games coming up, there's a lot of good teams among our opponents in the next couple of weeks."
Houston, meanwhile, have lost three of their last four league games including each of their last two, both of which came against Texas rivals in Austin FC (0-1) and FC Dallas (0-2).
Despite their downturn, boss Ben Olsen is choosing to remain upbeat and is certain things will turn, saying: "I can take a loss and I will say the guys gave everything, they continue to fight.
"We'll get back to work and try to make the fans proud next week.
"We prepare for St. Louis the same way we prepared for Dallas. We'll just get back to work and keep going.
"It's very early in the season. The last two games didn't go the way we want so we have to learn from it."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Houston Dynamo – Ibrahim Aliyu
Aliyu is the only Houston player with more than one goal to his name in MLS this year, netting three times. However, he has failed to score in their last three games, so he will be desperate to end that mini-drought here.
St. Louis City – Joao Klauss
Klauss is St. Louis' joint-leading scorer this season, his three goals only matched by Celio Pompeu after both players were on target against Sporting KC last time out.
The Brazilian has attempted a team-high 29 shots this term as well as creating 12 chances for team-mates, a tally only bettered by Pompeu (17).
MATCH PREDICTION – HOUSTON DYNAMO WIN
The Dynamo's first victory over St. Louis came in the second leg of this year's CONCACAF Champions Cup first round, a 1-0 home win that saw Houston into the round of 16.
St. Louis had previously gone unbeaten in the first three meetings between the teams (two wins, one draw), including winning both matches in Missouri.
After winning their first three away matches in club history last year, St. Louis have only managed three wins in 22 road trips (six draws, 13 defeats). Houston, meanwhile, have won two of their last three at Shell Energy Stadium so enter Saturday's game as favourites.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Houston Dynamo – 42%
St. Louis City – 29.7%
Draw – 28.3%
Chicago Fire v New England Revolution: Acosta says composure key for misfiring hosts
Kellyn Acosta says the Chicago Fire need to be more precise with their ball progression if they are to end their barren run and begin to climb the MLS standings.
Frank Klopas' team sit 12th in the Eastern Conference and have failed to win – or even find the net – in three matches ahead of Saturday's clash with the New England Revolution.
Chicago scored nine goals in their first five MLS matches in 2024 but have since netted two in their last five, and midfielder Acosta says composure is the key to improving their attacking output.
"It's a combination of moving the ball back to front and finding our forwards," Acosta said.
"I feel like we've got to get them the ball in dangerous areas where they are bringing out their qualities, and I think we have not done a good job of progressing the ball to them."
The Revs, meanwhile, sit bottom of the East with just four points through their first nine matches under Caleb Porter, being thrashed 4-1 by a Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami side last time out.
Nacho Gil has joined several other New England players on a lengthy injury list, and Porter says the team must be cautious as they navigate a route through a testing spell.
"If we're good with our planning… you can't avoid some injuries, but with soft tissue injuries, you can avoid a mistake," Porter said.
"The medical staff, the sports science staff, they'll have a plan to reintegrate these guys where they can hit the ground running."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Chicago Fire – Brian Gutierrez
The Fire failed to record a shot on target in last week's goalless draw at home to Atlanta United, the third time they have done so since the start of the 2022 campaign. No other team has done so more than once in that time.
Gutierrez was limited to the role of substitute for that game, but as Chicago's leading scorer with three league goals this year, he will surely come in to start this one.
New England Revolution – Carles Gil
Carles Gil leads all Revs players for goals (three) and chances created (27) so far this season. None of his team-mates have laid on more than 11 chances this term (Tomas Chancalay).
MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW
New England are winless in 17 MLS away matches (five draws, 12 defeats, including playoffs), in a run dating back to May 2023. Their longest ever winless run on the road in MLS is 18 matches between September 2016 to September 2017.
However, they may fancy their chances of taking something from Saturday's match, with Chicago only having two wins through their first 10 games of the season.
This is the sixth straight season in which they have failed to win at least three of their first 10 games of an MLS campaign. No other team in MLS history has done so in more than three straight years.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Chicago Fire – 37.7%
New England Revolution – 33.4%
Draw – 28.9%
Saudi Pro League: Mahrez and Firmino on target as Al-Ahli tighten grip on third place
Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino were both on target as Al-Ahli tightened their grip on third place in the Saudi Pro League table with a 4-1 win over Damac on Thursday.
Matthias Jaissle's team were four goals up within just 25 minutes as Damac folded, Ziyad Al Johani and Feras Al Brikan netting their first two before Franck Kessie was felled by Dhari Al Anazi for a penalty, converted by Mahrez.
Firmino then tapped home a fourth after being teed up by former Newcastle United winger Allan Saint-Maximin on the break, but Al-Ahli took their foot off the gas from there, Domagoj Antolic's second-half consolation rounding off the scoring.
Elsewhere, 10-man Al-Riyadh scored two stoppage-time draws to earn a dramatic 2-2 draw with Al-Fateh in Al-Mubarraz.
Goals from Djaniny and former Columbus Crew star Lucas Zelarayan put Slaven Bilic's hosts on the brink of victory, with Al-Riyadh playing almost half the game a player down after Khalid Al Shuwayyi's 54th-minute red card.
An astonishing collapse denied them, however, with Mohammed Al Shwirekh halving the arrears one minute into stoppage time before Didier Ndong headed in a left-wing cross three minutes later.
Thursday's other game saw Al-Hazm and Al-Akhdoud play out a goalless draw, keeping the hosts bottom of the table while Al-Akhdoud inched two points clear of the relegation zone.
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