By losing to Sassuolo (2-0) on Sunday during the 35th day of the Italian Championship, AC Milan lost their last and slim hopes of upsetting Inter Milan, who can clinch their 21st title with a win or a draw in the evening against Parma.

Milan endured a nightmarish Sunday afternoon in Reggio Emilia. It took Sassuolo just five minutes to take the lead through Domenico Berardi. Unrecognizable and terribly out of sorts, Massimiliano Allegri's team sank even further when their English defender Fikayo Tomori was sent off for a second yellow card.

After the break, Frenchman Armand Laurienté doubled Sassuolo's lead (47th minute). Despite Allegri's substitutions, clearly frustrated with his players, Milan failed to recover and left the pitch at the final whistle to a chorus of boos from their fans.

After this fourth defeat in the last seven matches, the Rossoneri, who have scored only one goal in their last five matches, are 12 points behind (67 pts) Inter (79 pts) and can no longer catch up with the Nerazzurri, who now only need one point to be crowned champions.

Only Napoli (2nd, 70 pts) can theoretically still catch up with Inter, provided they win their last three matches and Inter fail to score a single point in the last four matches.

- Juventus frustrated at home -

AC Milan will now be fighting tooth and nail for their Champions League spot. The Lombardy club, three points behind Napoli, received a boost from Verona (19th), who were relegated to Serie B on Friday but managed a draw away to Juventus (1-1) earlier in the evening.

Dusan Vlahovic did score his first goal in six months, but Juve, 4th (65 pts) remain under threat from Como (5th, 62 pts) and AS Roma (6th, 61 pts and one game in hand).

"I understand the anger of our fans, we all want to reach the Champions League objective as quickly as possible (...) In these complicated moments, we must keep our heads high, we have three matches left to play, with two wins, we will be in the Champions League," said the AC Milan coach on the DAZN platform.

"There's no point in dwelling on our results from the second half of the season or letting stress or anxiety get the better of us. We'll be back on track for the next match," Allegri insisted.