AC Milan scored twice in the final six minutes, the first a hugely controversial Mario Balotelli penalty, to beat relegated AC Siena 2-1 in Serie A on Sunday and snatch the UEFA Champions League playoff spot.
Furious Siena, who went ahead in the 25th minute through Claudio Terzi, also had Christian Terlizzi harshly sent off in the 70th minute, almost immediately after Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini had been dismissed.
Milan scraped into third place two points ahead of ACF Fiorentina, who won 5-1 at Delfino Pescara 1936 with an Adem Ljajic hat-trick and are likely to feel hugely aggrieved by the manner of Milan’s win.
Photo: AFP
Injury-ravaged Inter’s nightmare season ended with a crushing 5-2 home defeat by Udinese, who finished fifth and joined Fioretina in the Europa League next season.
SSC Napoli, who had already clinched second place behind champions Juventus and a place in the Champions League group stage, lost 2-1 at AS Roma.
Serie A leading scorer Edinson Cavani scored Napoli’s goal, taking his tally to 29, after Marquinho and Mattia Destro had scored for Roma.
Photo: EPA
Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri’s future remained in the balance, despite receiving a late helping of good fortune in the historic Tuscan city.
“We finished the season the way we started, with suffering and difficulty,” Allegri told RAI television.
Milan wasted a flurry of early chances as Antonio Nocerino fired wildly over from Ignazio Abete’s cross and M’baye Niang missed the ball completely when all he had to do was turn in Robinho’s cross from close range.
The Italian media had billed the match as a formality for Milan, and they looked casual and sloppy, as if believing they could score at will, but Siena showed they would not simply roll over and when Terzi was left unmarked, he headed in Alessandro Rossini’s cross in the 25th minute.
Balotelli smacked a header against the crossbar before halftime and then forced a good save from Gianluca Pegolo with a booming free-kick, but Milan were generally shoddy and rarely looked like scoring.
Their situation appeared hopeless when Ambrosini was sent off, but their fortune began to change immediately when Terlizzi was given a second yellow card for what appeared a harmless challenge.
The visitors won a penalty out of the blue when Balotelli crumpled under the slightest of touches from a defender and he stepped up to convert the spot-kick in the 84th minute, his 12th goal since his move from Manchester City in January.
Three minutes later, Milan won a controversial free-kick, the ball was chipped to Mexes and, although his first effort was saved by Gianluca Pegolo, the ball rebounded to the French defender, who fired in the winner.
Fiorentina took command at Pescara with three goals in a 12-minute first-half spell.
Ljajic turned in Juan Cuadrado’s low cross at the far post, then ran on to a Matias Fernandez pass to score, before Fernandez himself was on target with a low shot from outside the area.
Ljajic and Stevan Jovetic added two more goals early in the second half.
Inter found themselves 2-0 behind after 10 minutes at the San Siro as Giampiero Pinzi and Maurizo Domizzo scored for Udinese. Juan Jesus pulled one back, but Antonio di Natale restored Udinese’s two-goal lead with his 23rd goal of the season.
Gabriel Silva and Luis Muriel added two more for Udinese in the second half, while Tommaso Rocchi replied in between.
Also on Sunday, Cagliari edged SS Lazio 1-0, Parma won 3-1 at US Citta di Palermo, Torino drew 2-2 with Catania, Atalanta BC were held at home by the same score by AC Chievo Verona, while the match between Bologna and Genoa ended goalless.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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