Serie A | Inter 1-0 Lecce: Esposito guarantees Winter Champion title

Francesco Pio Esposito finally broke Lecce down to give Inter a hard-fought victory, taking advantage of Napoli’s hiccup to secure their title as Winter Champions.

The Nerazzurri remained three points clear at the top after the thrilling 2-2 draw with Napoli, but lost Hakan Calhanoglu for a month, with Denzel Dumfries, Matteo Darmian, Josep Martinez, Raffaele Di Gennaro and Tomas Palacios already out of action, so Cristian Chivu rotated his squad for this Week 16 fixture rescheduled from December due to Supercoppa Italiana commitments. Lecce had Lameck Banda, Kialonda Gaspar and Ylber Ramadani suspended after the chaotic 2-1 defeat to Parma, where they ended the game with nine men, scraping one point from three rounds. Francesco Camarda and Medon Berisha were out injured, but Woyo Coulibaly returned from AFCON duty, while Omri Gandelman was thrown straight into the starting XI.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Wladimiro Falcone got down quickly to make a very tricky fingertip save on Ange-Yoan Bonny’s daisy-cutter from the edge of the area, while Piotr Zielinski blasted over after a give and go, but Marcus Thuram was booked for simulation after going down too easily under pressure from Santiago Pierotti.

The referee was more convinced by another soft connection between Bonny and Danilo Veiga, pointing to the spot despite the contact being minimal. However, VAR showed him the footage, showing that the Lecce player got a boot to the ball first, so it was revoked.

Thuram’s header went over and Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s scorcher was deflected off target by Jamil Siebert, but in first half stoppages Riccardo Sottil went on the counter only to fire wide with Yann Sommer off his line.

Inter had a big chance after the restart, as first Falcone stuck up one glove to push a Nicolò Barella header out from under the bar on the Carlos Augusto cross, then the move continued for Andy Diouf to drill wide.

Diouf also tested Falcone with a weak finish moments later, then Thuram’s right-foot curler was charged down, but with no breakthrough in sight, Inter threw on Francesco Pio Esposito and Lautaro Martinez for a trident attack.

However, this left them unbalanced and Lecce had a big chance on 74 minutes when Mohamed Kaba dribbled into the area, laying it off for Siebert’s deflected finish from 14 yards, forcing a one-handed Sommer save.

Falcone was also at full stretch to fingertip away the Pio Esposito glancing header on a Luis Henrique ball into the box, but the dam finally broke on 78 minutes.

Esposito knocked down a Piotr Zielinski ball for Lautaro Martinez, whose ferocious strike was parried from 12 yards, but the Italian was ready to turn in the rebound and get San Siro jumping.

He nearly added a second moments later, cutting inside to shimmy away from a defender and bending the finish inches wide.