Samuel Eto’o scored another cracking goal to give Inter a 1-0 Serie A win at Cagliari on Sunday and hit back at the racist fans who held up the game.
The battling victory put champions Inter level on points with AC Milan, who beat Chievo on Saturday, but Lazio’s 2-0 win at Bari kept the Romans top of the standings by two points.
Tricky playmaker Hernanes latched on to Italy midfielder Stefano Mauri’s pass to give Lazio an early second-half lead before Sergio Floccari sealed the points from Mauri’s mishit shot.
Photo: EPA
Lazio flirted with relegation last term but coach Edy Reja has them riding high on 16 points from seven matches.
Napoli, in fourth, missed the chance to join Inter and Milan on 14 points after a 1-1 draw at Catania where Edinson Cavani netted his sixth league goal.
Juventus made a bad start but now lie just five points from the summit after a rampant 4-0 home win over Lecce sparked by Alberto Aquilani’s first goal for the club.
The former Liverpool and AS Roma midfielder fired in from 25m before Felipe Melo, booed by his own fans for much of last term, continued his renaissance with a cheeky penalty and Fabio Quagliarella nodded in on his knees just before the break.
Milos Krasic, distraught when Serbia’s Euro qualifier in Italy was abandoned on Tuesday because of rioting away fans, was again superb before Alessandro Del Piero scored a late fourth to equal Giampiero Boniperti’s Juve record of 178 Serie A goals.
In the early game, Cameroon’s Eto’o took his league tally to six goals from seven games this season and, like most of his recent efforts, the 39th-minute goal was a marvellous strike.
Wesley Sneijder hooked on and Eto’o twisted and turned like Inter’s serpent symbol on their new away kit before planting a left-foot shot into the corner from the edge of the box.
“Cagliari put us under pressure but we deserved the lead. Eto’o is enjoying a great moment and we hope he continues like this,” Inter’s Javier Zanetti, back from injury for tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Tottenham Hotspur, told Sky.
Eto’o’s strike was the perfect riposte to the Cagliari fans whose racist chants towards him caused the referee to suspend the game after three minutes.
A public announcement was made asking fans to stop the chants, which they did for the rest of the match. The game restarted after around three minutes.
The Italian soccer federation, which has long struggled with racist fans, gave referees the right to suspend matches in case of such chanting after Mario Balotelli was constantly abused in Inter’s match at Juventus two seasons ago.
Inter had other chances but the hosts also went close when they hit the bar and Julio Cesar was forced into a double save.
The table is beginning to take on a familiar look and Palermo joined Juve on 11 points in fifth after Javier Pastore and Josip Ilicic enhanced their growing reputations with spectacular strikes in a 4-1 home win over struggling Bologna.
Fiorentina slumped to bottom after Antonio Cassano scored the winner in Sampdoria’s 2-1 comeback victory, prompting visiting coach Sinisa Mihajlovic to say he would not quit.
Cesena drew 1-1 with Parma and Udinese won 1-0 at Brescia.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was