Mario Balotelli grabbed the headlines again as 10-man AC Milan consolidated their grip on third place in Serie A with a 2-0 win on Friday at lowly Genoa which extended their unbeaten league run to 10 games.
Balotelli, who started on the bench, scored the clinching second after his replacement, Giampaolo Pazzini, had notched the opener.
However, the game was marred by an ugly second half incident as Guinea fullback Kevin Constant was sent off for a sustained attempt to confront Genoa’s Cesare Bovo 25 minutes from time.
Despite receiving a second yellow from the referee, and eventually the subsequent red, Constant refused to leave the field as he persistently attempted to approach Bovo.
It was several minutes before a gaggle of teammates managed to usher him from the pitch.
However, that did not stop Milan from continuing their recent unbeaten run which has taken them to within two points of second-placed Napoli ahead of the weekend games.
Despite a torrid start to the season, in which they lost five of their opening eight league games, Milan now occupy a Champions League qualification spot and lead Spanish giants Barcelona 2-0 ahead of their last 16, second-leg clash in that competition at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.
“It’s a great win in the chase for third place,” Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said.
“Now we’re going to turn our attentions to Barcelona and prepare for that match as well as we can,” he told Sky Sports.
“I’m sorry about Constant’s sending off, there wasn’t much risk and we could have clinched that result without wasting too much energy,” Allegri said. “We could have saved ourselves, you have to stay calm.”
In a turgid first period chances were at a premium, but teenage French forward M’Baye Niang brought a fine save out of his compatriot and home goalkeeper Sebastien Frey on 20 minutes with a powerful effort.
Just two minutes later Pazzini opened the scoring.
He had been limping around the pitch and indicating to the bench that he wanted to come off following a robust challenge from Daniele Portanova, when a Mattia De Sciglio cross from the right was pushed out into his path on the edge of the box and the Italy striker forgot his injury for an instant to crash a rising shot in off the underside of the bar.
Moments later he did indeed limp off to be replaced by Balotelli, whose first act was to earn a booking when exacting revenge on Pazzini’s assailant.
Genoa thought they had a shout for a penalty late in the first period when they claimed a handball against Niang, but the referee remained unmoved.
Soon after the restart Bovo bent a wicked free-kick beyond Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati, only to see it crash back off the unpright.
Genoa paid for that on the hour mark as Balotelli pounced on a scuffed shot from Christian Zapata to shoot across Frey and double the visitors’ lead.
Despite playing the last 25 minutes with a man advantage, fourth-from-bottom Genoa could make no headway.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB