The tricky part for Milan would be their involvement in both the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup. That hit their hopes right from the srart as despite a 3-0 win at Genoa in their opening game, they drew four and lost one of their first six matches.

Worse was to follow as Milan failed to win any of their first seven home matches, losing twice, and by the time they broke that duck, it was already January. By this time, they were so far out of the running that coach Carlo Ancelotti was already talking about fourth place and Champions League qualification being the target for the season, before Milan had even played half their matches.

That left it up to AS Roma to provide the main threat to Inter's procession hopes.

Having suffered badly the previous season by failing to beat many of the so-called weaker sides in the league, Roma were determined to find the same clinical efficiency that Inter showed. They started well and a 4-1 home defeat to Inter was the only black cloud in their early season. In fact, after about three months, that result was the only one separating the sides.

However, Roma's inability to put away the smaller teams was allowing Inter to edge clear, with draws at Empoli, Livorno and Torino in November and December costing the capital based club. They also had a bad February, losing 3-0 at Siena and 1-0 at Juventus and slipped to 11 points behind the champions.

With Inter preoccupied by their Champions League challenge and a tie with Liverpool, Roma did start to claw back some ground. They were hampered, though, by a harsh red card dished out to French centre-back Philippe Mexes when they were leading Inter 1-0 in a top of the table clash.

Inter equalised against the 10 men and it seemed as if Roma's chase would be futile. However, Inter suffered in March, losing their unbeaten run in a 1-0 loss at Napoli and then losing 2-1 at home to Juventus at the end of the month. Inter won only twice in eight matches, allowing Roma to close in. The champions seemed to recover until the run-in when a 2-1 defeat to city rivals Milan followed by a 2-2 home draw against plucky Siena allowed Roma to take the title race down to the wire. At half-time it seemed as Inter might crack completely and allow Roma to snatch the Scudetto at the death but Zlatan Ibrahimovic changed all that.

Released from the bench after a month and a half out with a knee injury, he scored twice in the last game of the season, a 2-0 win at Parma, to ensure Inter held on. Roma's charge ran out of steam against Catania, who were fighting for their Serie A lives, as they finished with a 1-1 draw.

That allowed the Sicilians to escape the drop, sending Parma and Empoli down with Livorno, who had dropped the week before.

And in one final twist, Fiorentina scored the only goal of the game 14 minutes from time at Torino to ensure they joined Inter, Roma and Juventus in the Champions League next season, and at the expense of AC Milan - ex European champions and playing UEFA Cup football next season.