Carlos Tevez marked his Juventus debut with a goal as the Serie A champions thrashed SS Lazio 4-0 in the Italian Supercoppa on Sunday.
Tevez, who ended his controversial stay at Manchester City in the close-season, scored the fourth and final goal of the game in the 56th minute.
The Argentina international side-footed in a close-range rebound after Swiss star Stephan Lichtsteiner and French youngster Paul Pogba had both been denied in quick succession by Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti.
Photo: EPA
Tevez came close to a second goal in the dying minutes, but his spectacular volley went over the bar.
His link-up play with Montenegro international striker Mirko Vucinic would also have given Juventus coach Antonio Conte great cause for optimism ahead of the new Serie A season which starts next weekend.
“I knew we’d face this match in the right way. It is one game,” Conte said. “We continue to write history, these players put in a great performance and it was a deserved victory. Don’t forget we only lost one match in 90 minutes, against LA [Los Angeles] Galaxy [in a pre-season friendly in the US]. We know that we still have to shake off the heavy pre-season training work, but we deserved the win and I’m very happy.”
Lazio coach Vladimir Petkovic apologized to his team’s fans and said his Coppa Italia winners had been naive by conceding three second-half goals in the space of six minutes.
“It was a blackout. We have to get our feet back on the ground. We tried to do that after winning the Coppa Italia final and we must do it again now. We were perhaps a little too confident against a great Juve side when we weren’t 100 percent fit,” Petkovic said.
Pogba put Juve ahead in the 23rd minute, just three minutes after coming on to replace the injured Claudio Marchisio, who had hurt his knee.
Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick landed comfortably for Lichtsteiner, whose cross landed in the path of Pogba in the penalty area to score.
Defenders Giorgio Chiellini, in the 52nd minute, and the impressive Lichtsteiner, two minutes later, added to the Juve total, before Tevez’s strike.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set