Lucky holders Inter beat Napoli on penalties in the Italian Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday after drawing 0-0 after extra time, while rivals AC Milan also went through.
Ezequiel Lavezzi blasted over the only missed spot kick as Inter prevailed 5-4 on penalties and kept alive their dream of a second straight treble.
Hosts Napoli had much the better chances in the 120 minutes with Marek Hamsik going closest when his shot was saved and his subsequent header was cleared off the line.
Inter battled hard without much penetration and lost Dejan Stankovic and Ivan Cordoba to injury.
Two goals by striker Alexandre Pato earlier downed Sampdoria 2-1 to seal Milan’s place in the two-legged semi-final stage, where they will meet Palermo after the Sicilians overcame Parma on penalties on Tuesday.
The Brazilian, left out of the Serie A leaders’ win over Cesena on Sunday, struck the first after 17 minutes and converted Dutch debutant Urby Emanuelson’s assist five minutes later to make it 2-0.
Stefano Guberti headed the Sampdoria back into the game after the break, but Milan, who also gave new signing Mark van Bommel a first start following the uncompromising Dutchman’s move from Bayern Munich, hung on.
With 12 minutes left Milan brought on former Samp forward Antonio Cassano, who left the Genoa-based side this month in acrimonious circumstances after being dropped for swearing at the club president.
Juventus were to host AS Roma yesterday in the last quarter-final as they prepared to welcome Italy World Cup winning defender Andrea Barzagli. Barzagli quit Bundesliga side Wolfsburg on Wednesday to sign for Juventus for an undisclosed fee.
The 29-year-old returns to Serie A having spent two-and-a-half seasons with Wolfsburg.
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