Juventus saw their six-match winning run in all competitions come to an end on Friday in a dour 0-0 draw at ACF Fiorentina.
The result meant the champions could see their lead at the top of Serie A trimmed to just a point if second-placed AS Roma defeated struggling US Sassuolo yesterday.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri named teenager Kingsley Coman as a surprise starting striker alongside Fernando Llorente, with Carlos Tevez and Alvaro Morata left out of the starting lineup, indicating his thoughts had turned to the Italians’ UEFA Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Friday’s match was in stark contrast to the thriller the two sides served up last season, when Fiorentina came back from 2-0 down to beat the Turin giants 4-2.
Fiorentina, in eighth place and three points off the Champions League places, also saw their best player, Colombian midfielder Juan Cuadrado, limp off with an injury five minutes from time.
Juventus struggled to make any impact and had to wait until after the interval for a first attempt on target when Patrice Evra’s drive was saved by Norberto Neto.
For the home side, Germany international Mario Gomez, who scored his first goal in eight months the previous weekend, was unable to find a way through and was replaced by Babacar Khouma with 20 minutes left.
Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella said he knew that Juventus would switch tactics with a 3-5-2 system instead of the flat back four, which had served them so well last month.
“You can’t hide anything nowadays and I’ve noticed that as soon as you test something out in training, it emerges. I had half a thought it might have been a trick, but fortunately the reports were right,” Montella told Sky Sport. “Both teams lacked that final move. I think the statistics show we were equal in everything and that’s a positive confidence-booster for us, as we were technically and tactically on a par with Juventus.”
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