Cristian Chivu is thrilled Inter are enjoying their football after their 3-0 win over Cagliari and is happy to have secured their Champions League spot for next season.

After Como's 2-1 loss to Sassuolo earlier on Friday opened the door for Inter to make sure of their place in UEFA's premier competition, Chivu's side did so in emphatic fashion.

A poor first half was quickly put behind them, with Marcus Thuram and Nicolo Barella scoring in the space of four minutes shortly after the break before Piotr Zielinski added their third in stoppage time.

It means Inter have won at least 25 matches in the first 33 rounds of a single Serie A season for the fourth time in their history.

As well as ensuring a Champions League spot, the win also means Inter have taken another big step to winning the Scudetto after moving 12 points clear at the top of the table ahead of the rest of the weekend's action.

Last week, Chivu sarcastically claimed Inter's primary objective was the Champions League, taking a sideswipe at their rivals, and he once again took focus away from their title charge.

"I was being ironic last week, but not joking, so we're very happy," Chivu told Sky Sport Italia.

"We were aware of how important this match was. We had a few problems in the first half; we moved it too slowly, and that allowed Cagliari to cover the spaces very well.

"We spread them wider after the break, pushed the forwards up, and also raised the intensity level.

"When this team breaks the deadlock, it starts to enjoy its football and go for more ambitious moves. This is a team with quality; they are great players, and they enjoy themselves on the pitch.

"We are aware of the hard work we've done, of what we did to become competitive, and thank God we have now achieved the objective of Champions League qualification with five games to spare, so now we can look forward and try to be competitive to the end."

Inter are now given a 99.7% chance of lifting the Scudetto at the end of the season by the Opta supercomputer, with that just one of the trophies they are still in the hunt for, with a Coppa Italia semi-final second leg against Como to come in midweek.

Unlike last season, when Inter reached the Champions League final, this season they were shockingly knocked out in the play-offs by Bodo/Glimt.

Asked if they can be competitive in Europe next season as well as in Serie A, Chivu added: "It's not easy, as you are up against teams of a certain level, especially the Premier League sides that spend an incredible amount of money to keep reinforcing.

"We have a thousand examples of teams who spent so much and still discovered it's no guarantee of Champions League success.

"We want to be competitive, one of the objectives of all clubs is to qualify for the Champions League, so it's not a joke really, because everyone wants to participate in that tournament."