Napoli ended a winless run of five matches on Monday with a 2-0 victory over Serie A rivals Chievo Verona thanks to goals from Uruguayan duo Miguel Angel Britos and Edinson Cavani.
The win — which followed a run of four draws and a defeat — saw them climb to a point off sixth-placed AS Roma, who slumped to a surprise 1-0 defeat by relegation-threatened AC Siena.
Napoli had the game won by halftime as first Britos rose to head home a 14th-minute corner and then Cavani, otherwise known as the Matador, tucked away a 37th-minute penalty he had obtained himself when he was fouled by Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino.
Photo: AFP
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said that his side were capable of playing better soccer once they relaxed.
“This is an important victory,” Mazzarri said. “I am convinced that when we overcome the fear factor, the pressure that we feel weighing down on us, Napoli will show a much better quality of play.”
Roma were left kicking themselves as they missed the chance to leapfrog ailing Inter — who had seen their winless run extended to five games with a stunning 1-0 defeat to tailenders Novara Calcio on Sunday.
Siena’s goal came from the penalty spot in the 51st minute after Danish central defender Simon Kjaer — who had only come on at halftime — brought down Mattia Destro, earning him a yellow card to boot.
Siena’s leading scorer Emanuele Calaio made no mistake as he put away his 10th goal of the season to help his side move five points clear of the relegation places.
Roma’s Spanish coach Luis Enrique admitted that his side had not merited a point.
“This evening a lot of the players were below par,” the 41-year-old former Spain star said. “It was not to be our night. We made too many errors. We are always trying to play attractive football, but if there is no good management of the ball we get into trouble. It is obvious that we are a long way off the consistency we are looking for.”
Meanwhile, Cesena’s game against Catania that was scheduled for today has again been rescheduled because of snow and it is now set to be played on March 7.
The match was originally due to take place on Feb. 4, but it was one of six matches postponed because of the severe weather affecting Italy.
Parts of the country are still being affected by some of the worst weather in nearly half a century and it was decided on Monday to postpone the match again.
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