Inter Milan beat Empoli to close in on Serie A title

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Inter Milan took another step towards the Serie A title on Monday with a straightforward 2-0 win over struggling Empoli which maintained their 14-point lead at the top of the league.

Federico Dimarco put Inter ahead after five minutes at the San Siro before substitute Alexis Sanchez sealed the points in front of delighted home fans with nine minutes remaining.

Monday's comfortable victory left Inter needing just 11 more points from eight matches to beat second-placed AC Milan to a 20th Italian league crown.

Inter have a huge lead on their local rivals thanks in large part to academy product Dimarco, whose first-time strike from Alessandro Bastoni's neat clipped pass separated the hosts from their spirited opponents for most of the match.

It was Bastoni's third assist in as many league matches and the Italy defender joked: "It was the worst of the lot, Dimarco's finish made it look much better!"

"We're really happy with the win because we've just come off the international break and it's never easy winning after travelling around the world," added Bastoni.

Simone Inzaghi's side were far from the scintillating form they showed before being knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid last month.

But Inter have dropped only two points since the turn of the year and Monday's win was a good way to end what has been a difficult couple of weeks.

Francesco Acerbi was cleared late last month of racially abusing Napoli defender Juan Jesus, an ugly episode which dragged on through the international break as the Italy defender and Inter denied the accusation.

Acerbi started the game after avoiding a potential 10-match ban due to the Italian Football Federation's disciplinary tribunal deciding there wasn't enough evidence to punish him.

A fourth straight defeat without scoring a goal left Empoli back in the relegation zone on goals scored, swapping places with 17th-placed Frosinone who drew 1-1 with Genoa on Saturday.

"If that run had knocked our confidence you'd have seen it tonight with a bad performance but that didn't happen," said Empoli coach Davide Nicola.