AC Milan crashed 3-1 at Palermo on Sunday to hand city rivals and reigning champions Inter a six-point lead at the top of the Serie A table following their 2-1 success over Napoli.
Milan remain third on goal difference behind Juventus.
Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti tried to look on the bright side despite the defeat.
PHOTO: AP
“After three months of good results I wouldn’t say this defeat is welcome, but it is useful,” he said. “For a while we’ve lacked attention and intensity. Tonight we didn’t play with rhythm. Our players were subdued all over the pitch, we played to Palermo’s rhythm and failed to play our own game.”
Palermo dominated for an hour, but Milan had the better chances of the first half.
Home goalkeeper Marco Amelia saved a Ronaldinho penalty on 27 minutes after he had clattered into Pato.
Ronaldinho also hit the bar in first half stoppage time direct from a free-kick, but Palermo had enjoyed more pressure.
Five minutes into the second period Fabrizio Miccoli faked to shoot on the edge of the box, made space and then curled a right-footer around Christian Abbiati.
Then, just before the hour mark, Fabio Liverani chipped the ball into the area and Brazilian forward Edison Cavani rose above Paolo Maldini to head home.
Brazilian Simplicio was left completely unmarked in the box to head in the third 10 minutes from time from a Federico Balzaretti cross.
Ronaldinho scored a consolation from the spot seven minutes from time after he was brought down by Cesare Bovo.
At the San Siro, Inter coach Jose Mourinho blasted the club’s fans for jeering Brazilian full-back Maicon during the game against Napoli.
“We need the support of our fans. I don’t like it when a section of our fans in a match such as this start whistling a player for a misplaced pass,” he said. “Maicon played despite an injury and despite both myself and the medical staff advising him not to. He said: ‘There’s no-one who can stop me playing.’”
On paper, Napoli looked to be a tough test for Inter, but the champions seemed to be strolling away with the game midway through the first period as they opened up a 2-0 lead.
Napoli gifted their hosts a 16th-minute advantage after poor defending at a short corner which was played to Sulley Muntari who crossed for Colombian center-back Ivan Cordoba to volley home on the turn.
Inter’s second was pure class, though, as Julio Cruz’s back-heel presented Maicon with space to shoot inside the box. He scuffed his effort, but it arrived at Muntari’s feet on the edge of the six-yard box and the Ghana midfielder reacted quickly to flick the ball between his legs and past the helpless Gennaro Iezzo on 25 minutes.
Nine minutes before the break the visitors fashioned a brilliant goal of their own.
Ezequiel Lavezzi cut in from the right flank and played the ball into Uruguayan Marcelo Zalayeta who, with his back to goal, back-heeled the ball past a line of blue and black shirts.
Argentina forward Lavezzi had continued his run and found himself clean through before cleverly dinking the ball over Julio Cesar as the Brazilian goalkeeper dived at his feet.
It was a fifth straight league win for Inter, who responded well to the midweek Champions League defeat at home to Panathinaikos.
Napoli remain fourth as a host of teams failed to capitalize on their slip up.
One of those was Fiorentina, who went down 1-0 to resurgent AS Roma through a goal from captain Francesco Totti just before the hour mark.
A third straight win for the capital-based club still leaves them down in 14th place, but they are only seven points behind Napoli.
As well as Fiorentina missing out on moving into the top four, Lazio lost 2-0 at Atalanta, Genoa drew 1-1 at home to Bologna and 10-man Udinese fell 1-0 at home to rock bottom Chievo.
Italian Serie A
| Team | P | GD | PTS |
1 | Inter | 14 | 14 | 33 |
2 | Juventus | 14 | 12 | 27 |
3 | AC Milan | 14 | 7 | 27 |
4 | Napoli | 14 | 5 | 24 |
5 | Lazio | 14 | 6 | 23 |
6 | Fiorentina | 14 | 5 | 23 |
7 | Genoa | 14 | 5 | 22 |
8 | Catania | 14 | 0 | 22 |
9 | Udinese | 14 | 6 | 21 |
10 | Atalanta | 14 | 1 | 20 |
11 | Palermo | 14 | 0 | 20 |
12 | Siena | 14 | 0 | 19 |
13 | Cagliari | 14 | -2 | 17 |
14 | Roma | 13 | -3 | 17 |
15 | Sampdoria | 13 | -3 | 16 |
16 | Lecce | 14 | -6 | 13 |
17 | Torino | 14 | -6 | 12 |
18 | Reggina | 14 | -16 | 11 |
19 | Bologna | 14 | -11 | 10 |
20 | Chievo | 14 | -14 | 9 |
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier