Scudetto in the bag... Inter shift focus to Bernabeu

Two down, one to go for Jose Mourinho's Inter.

After claiming their sixth Coppa Italia - the first in four years - in Roma's own backyard earlier this month, Inter completed a domestic double on Sunday, after beating Siena in a tense match to clinch their fifth straight scudetto.

But that's not the end of the story for Inter as they have some unfinished business to complete on Saturday when they make their first appearance in a Champions Cup final since going down to Johan Cruyff's star-studded Ajax, in Rotterdam, 38 years ago.

In the Serie A, Inter were hot favourites to retain their crown but great credit should be given to close runners-up Roma.

The Giallorossi were in the hunt for a domestic double themselves but eventually had to bow to Inter's supremacy.

Ex-Chelsea and Juventus mentor Claudio Ranieri completed a terrific job in rejuvenating a Roma side that had stuttered badly under his predecessor Luciano Spalletti early in the campaign.

Ranieri's accomplishments become even more significant when one considers that his cash-strapped club's only signings of note were Nicolas Burdisso and Luca Toni - on loan from Inter and Bayern Munich respectively.

Although Inter were clearly superior in many respects, the team from the capital never threw in the towel and there was also a time last month when the scudetto was theirs for the taking. One also has to take into account that in the two direct league encounters, Roma took four points off Inter.

Roma stalwart Daniele De Rossi did not mince his words in his comments after Sunday's 2-0 away win at Chievo as he admitted that Inter would have probably won the title much earlier had they not reached the latter stages of the Champions League.

But it is a known fact that Inter's chief objective for a very long time has been the European Cup, an honour they had last won in 1965 after beating Benfica 1-0 on home soil. And that is precisely why two years ago, Inter supremo Massimo Moratti had shown the backdoor to Roberto Mancini and appointed Mourinho.

Inter's huge progress on the big stage was marked by six straight wins, culminating in a spectacular 3-1 home victory over Barcelona in the first leg of the semi-finals.

Before ousting Chelsea, few had dared to place a bet on Inter. Surely, the early Champions League exits in previous years did nothing to eradicate the trademark... but not this year.

Remarkably, on their way to the final Inter knocked out both the champions of England and Spain.

As things stand today, the Premier League and the Primera Liga are both considered a level ahead of the Serie A and this is also reflected in UEFA's rankings.

The Serie A had produced one European Cup finalist every year from 1992/93 to 1997/98 (Milan and Juventus three times each) but since then, Milan-Juventus (in 2002/03) and twice Milan (in 2004/05 and 2006/07) were the only Serie A teams that reached the Champions League final before Inter this year.

The bookies are backing Inter against Bayern even though the Germans have already completed a domestic double themselves. On their way to the final, Louis van Gaal's team eliminated Serie A duo Juventus and Fiorentina. An Inter upset on Saturday means the Serie A will lose one Champions League berth from season 2011/12.

Like Mourinho did in 2003/04, Dutch maestro Van Gaal knows exactly what winning the Champions League entails as he has already won it with Ajax in 1995 at the expense of Fabio Capello's Milan.

The following season, however, Ajax bowed to Marcello Lippi's Juventus after a penalty shoot-out in Rome.

Serie A statistics

1 St win for Catania since beating Palermo 2-0 on the 32nd day. From then on, the Sicilians could only manage four draws. On Sunday, a Maxi Lopez goal was enough to see Catania through against Genoa. The latter owe their disappointing ninth place finish to a dire away record - only 13 points collected from 19 travels.

2 Home wins on the trot (vs Fiorentina 1-0 and Juventus 3-0) saw third-placed Milan finish the season on a high. Saturday's success over beleaguered Juventus was a perfect farewell for Milan coach Leonardo, who, like his Juve counterpart Alberto Zaccheroni, will leave in search of pastures new. Juve finished in a disappointing seventh place, having won only one point out of the last available nine.

3 Players - Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Ivan Juric (Genoa) and Mauricio Isla (Udinese) - received marching orders. Palermo's Edison Cavani scored the only penalty taken last weekend. Total number of penalties awarded during the entire season is 122. All teams had at least one penalty in favour. Roma benefited from the highest number of penalties - 11 (nine scored). Milan only had three penalties against (two scored).

3 Draws are all Fiorentina have to show in their last seven games as they succumbed to their 17th defeat of the season at the hands of Bari. The Viola lost all their last three games on the road. Bari collected seven of the last available nine points to finish in a creditable 10th place.

5 Th away win of the season for Palermo, who handed third-bottom Atalanta a third upset in their last four winless outings. The Sicilians ended their campaign with a positive six-game run (four wins and two draws). However, Palermo's late flourish was still not enough for them to make a top-four finish as they ended up fifth, two points behind Sampdoria.

18 League titles - the fifth in a row - for Inter as a Diego Milito second-half goal ensured the Nerazzurri registered their fifth straight win, which kept them two points clear of runners-up Roma. The champions finished the season with the most prolific attack (75 goals) and the best defensive record (34).

24 Goals were scored on the last day of the season. Total number of goals scored amount to 992. Ronaldinho (Milan), Edison Cavani (Palermo) and Davide Lanzafame (Parma) grabbed a brace each to help their respective sides beat Juventus, Atalanta and Livorno respectively. Emanuel Rivas (Bari) was the only player who came on as a substitute and scored. Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) finished top-scorer with 29 goals, seven clear of Inter's Diego Milito.