Substitute Giampaolo Pazzini scored twice and won a penalty on a dream debut as Serie A champions Inter roared back from 2-0 down to beat visiting Palermo 3-2 in an enthralling encounter on Sunday.
Second-placed Napoli also put on a show, thrashing Pazzini’s now-toothless former club Sampdoria 4-0, with rampant Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani netting another hat-trick as they cut the gap to leaders AC Milan back to four points.
Faltering Juventus lost again, 2-1 at home to in-form Udinese, as the gulf in class between the fallen Turin giants and the other top teams continues to be apparent.
Photo: Reuters
In one of the best matches of the season, fourth-placed Inter found themselves trailing to first-half goals from Fabrizio Miccoli and Antonio Nocerino, despite dominating.
Pazzini, signed on Friday, was thrown on at the break and soon scored with a superb turn-and-shot, before Palermo’s Javier Pastore had a penalty saved by fit-again Julio Cesar.
Leaping like a salmon for a trademark goal, Pazzini then planted a bullet header into the bottom corner from Maicon’s free-kick and Samuel Eto’o completed the victory from the spot 14 minutes from time after Pazzini was pulled back.
Inter coach Leonardo, whose side lost their first match under his month-long stewardship last weekend at Udinese, took a big gamble at 2-0 down at halftime by sending on Pazzini and fellow new signing Houssine Kharja.
The European champions were already ravaged by injury and suspension, and the substitutions made them even more unbalanced, with Pazzini lining up in a front three with Eto’o and Diego Milito which is unlikely to suit his game long-term.
However, in the end, sheer will dragged Inter through.
AS Roma’s game at Bologna was abandoned at 0-0 after 18 minutes because of snow.
Juventus dropped to seventh as their outside title hopes took another blow after Cristian Zapata and a late goal by Alexis Sanchez gave Udinese a comeback win following Claudio Marchisio’s acrobatic opener for the hosts. Juve’s Leonardo Bonucci and Sanchez were sent off late on.
Juve’s misfit striker Amauri was omitted amid speculation he could leave on transfer deadline day, with Juve keen on Cagliari’s Alessandro Matri, who scored twice as the Sardinians beat bottom team Bari 2-1.
Brescia coach Mario Beretta was replaced by Beppe Iachini after the second-bottom side lost 3-0 to Chievo. Lecce drew 1-1 with relegation rivals Cesena, while Genoa grabbed a 3-1 win over Parma.
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