AC Milan took their time, but eventually eased past bottom side Novara Calcio 3-0 to stay on the tail of Serie A leaders Juventus on Sunday, as Udinese and Inter also won.
Champions Milan, who needed extra-time to beat Novara 2-1 in the Italian Cup last week, feared another difficult encounter at their near neighbors after having two efforts cleared off the line in the first half, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic emphatically broke the deadlock 12 minutes into the second period following Massimo Ambrosini’s assist, before Robinho doubled the advantage and Ibrahimovic rounded off the scoring late on.
Juve confirmed themselves as leaders at the halfway mark of the season with a 2-0 win at Atalanta BC on Saturday, but Milan remain just a point behind.
Surprise contenders Udinese are two points further back in third after a 2-1 home victory over Catania, with Pablo Armero and Antonio Di Natale on the scoresheet.
Inter, revived by Claudio Ranieri after a dreadful start, beat SS Lazio 2-1 at the San Siro to leapfrog the Romans into fourth spot.
Tommaso Rocchi gave the visitors the lead, but Diego Milito hit back just before the break after a neat interchange with Ricardo Alvarez.
Giampaolo Pazzini won it for Inter midway through the second half with a cool finish, although there were complaints he was offside from Lazio, who are now fifth.
Seventh-placed Napoli, an outside bet for the title for many when the season began, continued their inconsistent form with a 1-1 draw at lowly AC Siena, where in-form Goran Pandev again saved the Champions League round-of-16 qualifiers. Edinson Cavani also missed a penalty for Napoli.
In other results, Palermo overpowered Genoa 5-3, Alberto Paloschi put Chievo Verona 2-0 up, but Lecce grabbed a draw, while Bologna against Parma and Cagliari versus Fiorentina ended in 0-0 stalemates.
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