SS Lazio were lucky to escape with a share of the points from a lackluster scoreless draw away to Bologna which left them three points behind third-placed SSC Napoli in Serie A on Monday.
Lazio went into their 16th match of the campaign unbeaten in their last four fixtures and with a clean sheet in the last three away games.
However, their bid to edge closer to the top three and pull three points clear of city rivals Roma were undone by an enterprising Bologna side which dominated the second half and were unlucky not to secure all three points.
Midfielder Antonio Candreva had the best of Lazio’s chances in the first half, but his long-range drives failed to worry Federico Agliardi in the Bologna goal.
It was after the interval that the hosts began to trouble Vladimir Petkovic’s side, who remain in fourth, eight points behind leaders Juventus.
French midfielder Saphir Sliti Taider saw his well-worked shot blocked while under pressure in the Lazio area.
On the hour mark Bologna almost broke the deadlock when playmaker Alessandro Diamanti laid the ball off nicely for Tiberio Guarente, only for his first-time effort to creep wide.
At the other end, Agliardi had to look smart to collect Candreva’s near post header from a corner.
However, Bologna immediately carved open another great chance, only to be left frustrated when striker Alberto Gilardino and Greek Panagiotis Kone failed to connect from close in when Taider whipped in a probing cross from the right.
With no sign of goals, Petkovic replaced Candreva with veteran German striker Miroslav Klose with 13 minutes remaining, but it was Bologna who came closest, Gilardino seeing his angled left-foot drive parried by Federico Marchetti as Bologna threatened in Lazio’s area.
Lazio’s frustrations were growing and they were compounded when Czech striker Libor Kozak was red-carded for a vicious challenge on defender Archimede Morleo.
Bologna pressed on and were almost rewarded when second-half substitute Cristian Paquato unleashed a curling drive which Marchetti did well to parry with a spectacular dive on full-time.
Earlier, Udinese had Danilo and Antonio Di Natale to thank for a 2-0 away win away at UC Sampdoria which pushed them up to eighth in the table, just behind a resurgent AC Milan.
Brazilian defender Danilo headed home from a corner at the far post on 17 minutes and despite Sampdoria coming close, the hosts were stunned 11 minutes later when Di Natale finished off the good work of Emmanuel Badu.
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