Dumped out of the Champions League in midweek, Juventus saw their Serie A title hopes suffer a hammer blow on Saturday as they slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Bari to miss a chance to go second.
Ciro Ferrara’s side looked every bit a side suffering a Euro hangover as they struggled to find any rhythm on a heavy pitch and after just seven minutes the Zebras were behind, Riccardo Meggiorini slamming home after eluding a curiously sluggish backline.
After 23 minutes it was all square, as French veteran David Trezeguet leveled from close range after Diego’s effort was half scrambled clear by keeper Jean-Francois Gillet.
World Cup-winning defender Fabio Cannavaro, however, then clumsily fouled Paulo Vitor Barreto and he dusted himself off to strike his penalty past keeper Gianluigi Buffon to send the home fans at the Stadio San Nicola wild.
Five minutes after the restart, Gillet did superbly to block an effort from Trezeguet, before Tiago Mendes fired a great chance wide as Juve tried to respond.
Sergio Almiron then looked to have inadvertently handed the Old Lady a lifeline when he fouled Fabio Grosso in the penalty area, but Diego, seemingly distracted by a laser light in the crowd, fired his spot-kick over the bar.
Juve seemed flattened by that miss and Bari then sealed the points when, from a Pedro Kamata corner, Jose Martin Caceres could only clear as far as Almiron, who completed the shock result with a low drive that eluded everyone including a stock-still Buffon.
Having last week beaten leaders Inter, Juve undid much of that good work as they stay stuck on 30 points from 16 games, five behind Inter and one behind AC Milan.
In Saturday’s other game, there was likewise no shortage of goals as Cagliari and Napoli shared six after the visitors threw away a two-goal lead and then snatched a point with a Mariano Bogliacino strike six minutes into injury-time.
The draw left Napoli seventh — one of six clubs on 24 points — with Cagliari a point further back.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite