Edinson Cavani stretched his tally to a league-leading 27 goals as SSC Napoli secured Serie A’s runner-up spot and Champions League soccer next season with a 3-0 win over Bologna on Wednesday.
Napoli are 11 points behind Juventus, who secured their 29th league title last weekend and beat Atalanta BC 1-0 for their 27th win of the campaign, but cannot now be caught by AC Milan, who are seven points adrift.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Mario Balotelli brace and one apiece from Sulley Muntari and Mathieu Flamini put Milan within sight of the Champions League thanks to a 4-0 rout of already-relegated Delfino Pescara.
However Massimiliano Allegri’s side face a nervous last two games of the season, at home to AS Roma and away to AC Siena, before seeing if they will beat ACF Fiorentina to third place after La Viola prevailed 1-0 away to Siena.
Elsewhere Inter’s hopes of playing any kind of European soccer next season were derailed by a 3-1 defeat at home to SS Lazio.
Inter’s 15th defeat of the season left them 33 points behind Juventus and seven behind fifth-placed Udinese in the final Europa League spot as Lazio moved up to sixth.
Parma secured a 1-0 win at Cagliari, a result which kept both sides in mid-table, while Torino and Genoa, both sitting just above the relegation zone, played out a scoreless draw.
US Citta di Palermo, meanwhile, had been looking for the points that would pull them clear of the drop zone, but despite their endeavors in a five-goal thriller with Udinese they were left third from bottom, four points adrift of Genoa.
After a fairly eventless first half, Hamsik broke the deadlock for Napoli when he collected Blerim Dzemaili’s short pass on the left to send a swerving shot inside the post of goalkeeper Dejan Stojanovic.
Cavani doubled Napoli’s lead just after the hour mark from the spot after the teenage goalkeeper had hauled the Uruguayan down as he chased the ball.
Dzemaili gave Napoli a comfortable 3-0 cushion minutes later after he finished off a great run by Cavani by smashing the ball past Stojanovic.
In the day’s other Serie game UC Sampdoria and Catania drew 1-1.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was