AC Milan coast past Sassuolo to win first Scudetto in 11 years

After a long 11-year wait for the Serie A title, AC Milan fans are finally able to celebrate their team being the cream of the crop in Italy once more, bringing to an end a period of bitter disappointment at the club.

Heading into the final matchday of the 2021/22 Serie A season, Stefano Pioli's charges knew they simply had to avoid defeat away to Sassuolo and they would be champions, irrespective of what Inter did in their match against Sampdoria.

With 18,000 travelling Milan supporters making it feel like a home match for the visitors, the Rossoneri simply blew Sassuolo away with a first half in which they scored three goals.

The Rafael Leao show

The first came after some excellent work from Rafael Leao allowed the Portuguese forward to cut the ball back to Olivier Giroud, who saw his deflected shot squeeze under Andrea Consigli.

The veteran French forward then doubled his tally on the 32nd minute of play, once again getting on the end of a cross from Leao to prod the ball home.

Milan were in dreamland and they completed the rout just before the break, as the soon-to-be-departing Franck Kessie hammered the ball into the net after yet more fine work from Leao, who had registered his third assist on the day.

As the match headed into the second half it was very much a procession, with the visitors knowing they had done enough to secure the title, even as word filtered through that Inter had begun their second half with a flurry of goals.

Pioli has to take a lot of the credit for this triumph, especially when you consider how close the club were to hiring Ralf Rangnick in 2020, before instead electing to make the Italian's temporary contract a long-term one.

For the 19th time in their history, AC Milan are Serie A champions.