Inter Milan Stroll to Serie A Title
Inter, European Spots, Relegation and More in 2024 Serie A Roundup
Nerazzurri Wrap Things up Early
Champions League race was quite entertaining this season. Plus, the relegation battle came down to the last day of the season. We’ll take a more in depth look at this campaign, along with the season awards, in our 2024 Serie A Roundup.
Inter Dominate From Start to Finish
In the first half of the Serie A campaign, Inter Milan’s Serie A scores were quite impressive. Simone Inzaghi’s side went 15-3-1 and Lautaro Martinez was scoring seemingly at will. It looked highly debatable that anyone would catch Inter Milan and those suspicions were certainly warranted.
The Nerazzurri clinched the Scudetto, their 20th in history, vs. rivals AC Milan on April 22nd, with five games still to play. Inter dominated Serie A from start to finish, as they scored more goals than any other team and also conceded fewer goals than anyone. Martinez, who just extended his contract, finished the campaign with 24 goals.
Marcus Thuram also played a key role in his first season in Milan, with 13 goals and seven assists. In midfield, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Nicolo Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu were all superb. Matteo Darmian, sco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni and Federico Dimarco were four of the best defenders in the league.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Yann Sommer led the league with 19 clean sheets. Funnily enough, both of Inter Milan’s losses in Serie A came vs. eventually-relegated Sassuolo. Inter are well-positioned to challenge for the Serie A title for years to come and Inzaghi is looking like one of the best young managers in Europe.
Five Sides Qualify for Champions League
While Inter Milan will be playing in the 2024-25 edition of the Champions League, so will four other teams from Serie A. AC Milan finished in second place in the table but they didn’t put up much of a title challenge. Rafael Leao, Olivier Giroud and Christian Pulisic formed a formidable attack. However, our 2024 Serie A Roundup also notes the Rossoneri conceded the most goals of any top half team.
Next season, it looks like Paulo Fonseca will take over coaching duties from Stefano Pioli and Giroud is off to MLS. Juventus (3rd) also sacked coach Massimiliano Allegri the day after they defeated Atalanta in the Coppa Italia Final.
Juventus have been going sideways for a few years now but it looks like Thiago Motta is set to take over as their next coach. Motta coached fifth-placed Champions League appearance in almost 60 years. Joshua Zirkzee, Riccardo Orsolini, Riccardo Calafiori, Lewis Ferguson and Remo Freuler were standouts in Bologna’s surprising campaign.
Atalanta (4th) defeated Bologna towards the end of the season to finish ahead of BFC. La Dea ended up winning the Europa League, which was their first-ever European trophy.
Roma finished in sixth place in the Serie A table, one place ahead of rivals Lazio. Both sides will play in the Europa League next season.
Fiorentina (8th) will play in the UEFA Europa Conference league for a third straight season. They’ve lost the last two Conference League Finals and they’re missing a prolific striker.
Napoli ended the campaign with the worst-ever title defense in the three-points-per-win era of Serie A. The 2022-23 champions finished with 90 points last season but only managed 53 in 2023-24.
Frosinone Lose Tight Relegation Battle
Heading into the final day of the campaign, the only way Frosinone could be relegated is if they lost to Udinese and Roma. Empoli managed a 93rd minute winner to save themselves and Frosinone fell 1-0 to go back down to Serie B just as quickly as they came up.
At the very least, Salernitana (20th). Salernitana’s season was downright sad, as the Campania-based club managed just 17 points in 38 matches. The three sides will all be playing in the second tier next season.
Empoli (17th) finished one point ahead of relegated Frosinone and so did Cagliari (16th). Claudio Ranieri’s last act as a club football manager was to keep Cagliari in Serie A.
Only Salernitana won fewer games (two) than 15th-placed Udinese (six). Still, Udinese managed to go unbeaten in their last five games and they half of their 38 matches during the 2023-24 season.
Lecce (14th) were never really in the relegation fight but don’t be surprised if they struggle on their Verona (13th) were embroiled in the relegation battle for a while but they ended up winning three of their last six matches of the season.
Genoa (11th) enjoyed their return to Serie A as Albert Gudmundsson scored 14 times for Il Grifone.
Awards and Team of the Season
Inter’s Lautaro Martinez easily won the Golden Boot, or Capocannoniere, with 24 goals. The next closest competitor was Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, who scored 16 times in the league. Our 2024 Serie A Roundup also notes Martinez won the league’s MVP Award.
Meanwhile, Bologna forward Joshua Zirkzee was named Serie A’s Best Young Player. Monza’s Michele Di Gregorio made a league-leading 122 saves and kept 12 clean sheets. He was named Serie A’s Best Goalkeeper over Inter’s Yann Sommer. Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni and Hakan Calhanoglu and Juve’s Vlahovic won Best Defender, Best Midfielder and Best Striker, respectively.
Simone Inzaghi, rather unsurprisingly, won Serie A’s Coach of the Season Award. Inzaghi’s Inter grabbed 94 points in 38 games. Serie A’s Team of the Season is as follows:
- GK: Yann Sommer (Inter)
- D: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Bremer (Juventus), Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Theo Hernandez (AC Milan)
- M: Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter), Lewis Ferguson (Bologna), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan)
- F: Paulo Dybala (Roma), Olivier Giroud (AC Milan), Rafael Leao (AC Milan), Lautaro Martinez (Inter), Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
Next Season
We’re still waiting on the Serie A 2024-25 outrights but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Inter as the favorites to defend their title. The three new teams in Serie A next season will be Parma, Como and Venezia. Como will be making their first-ever appearance in the Italian top flight.
