Alessandro Matri scored twice on his debut for ACF Fiorentina to help his new team win 3-0 at bottom club Catania in Serie A on Sunday.
Matri had only scored once in six months for AC Milan, but now has more goals for Fiorentina after a brilliant first half.
“Today was an afternoon I dreamed about,” Matri said. “I really wanted to get back to helping the team. It’s been a difficult six months — in which I suffered — and I thank those who were close to me, my family and my girlfriend; I dedicate the goals to them.”
Photo: EPA
“I came to Fiorentina because I believed in this project. It was my decision to leave Juve[ntus] first and then Milan, two great clubs, but at the age of 29, it’s too early to remain on the bench and wait for your turn,” he added.
The win moved Fiorentina three points behind SSC Napoli in the race for third place — Serie A’s final Champions League berth — after the Naples club were held to a 2-2 draw by 10-man Bologna.
Napoli thought they had won after goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon, but Rolando Bianchi scored his second of the game in the final minute.
Photo: EPA
In Genoa, Inter lost 1-0 to the Rossoblu to rack up their third defeat in five league matches.
In the earlier kickoff, 10-man SS Lazio fought back after trailing twice to win 3-2 at Udinese, while elsewhere on Sunday, Parma toppled AC Chievo Verona 2-1, Atalanta BC edged Cagliari 1-0 and Torino blanked US Sassuolo 2-0.
In the evening game, former Netherlands midfielder Clarence Seedorf got off to a winning start as Milan’s coach after Mario Balotelli’s penalty helped the Rossoneri beat Hellas Verona 1-0.
“It is a victory that we dedicate to Seedorf, the first game is the most difficult,” Balotelli said.
“In a difficult situation we managed to win. We organized it and played very well. The new coach asked us to play with four forwards and to press from the start. It worked as we kept winning back possession. A good start means you’re halfway there,” the striker added.
After the game, Seedorf claimed that the Serie A giants have rediscovered the joy of playing soccer, despite requiring the late spot-kick to secure their precious win.
Seedorf has been heralded as Milan’s potential savior since former coach Massimiliano Allegri was sacked after a 4-3 defeat to Sassuolo last week left the San Siro side 30 points behind leaders Juventus.
For his first game at the helm of the side for whom he made 300 appearances in 10 golden years from 2002 to 2012, Seedorf sent out an ultra-offensive 4-2-3-1 formation with Robinho, Kaka and Japan’s Keisuke Honda behind Balotelli.
However, despite creating many chances against Andrea Mandorlini’s high-flying visitors, Milan had to rely on Balotelli’s 82nd-minute penalty to secure what was only their sixth win in 20 games.
Seedorf was pleased with the Rossoneri’s performance on what was effectively the first real day of his fledgling coaching career.
“Milan have rediscovered the joy of playing football,” said the 37-year-old Dutchman, who gave up his playing career with Brazilian side Botafogo last week.
Milan’s aim over the remaining 18 league games is to clinch a top three place in the Champions League, although with Juve, AS Roma and Napoli flying high and Fiorentina showing promise, that task looks very difficult.
Juventus and Roma were both on form in their respective games on Saturday, and Juve’s 12th successive win — a feat not achieved since the 1928-1929 season — allowed Antonio Conte’s men to retain their eight-point lead over the Giallorossi.
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