SSC Napoli came from behind to beat US Sassuolo 3-1 and move provisionally four points clear at the top of Serie A after Inter were held 1-1 at Atalanta BC on Saturday.
Gonzalo Higuain scored twice to take his tally to 20 league goals, while Jose Callejon netted his first to cancel out Diego Falcinelli’s third-minute opener from the penalty spot for Sassuolo.
Inter’s title challenge suffered another blow after they fell off top spot last week following a surprise defeat to Sassuolo and Atalanta, who lost their previous four matches, were the stronger side, with Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic having to pull off some fine saves, including a stunning stop on the hour mark.
Photo: EPA
Both sides netted own-goals in the first half, with Inter defender Jeison Murillo giving Atalanta the lead before Rafael Toloi also turned into his own net.
“I’m not happy with the performance of some of the players,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said. “We have good players and we have to do more, especially up front... We won so many 1-0 and I would sign up to win as many more, but sometimes one goal is not enough. At the beginning, we would have signed up to find ourselves in this position at this point of the season, but that doesn’t mean we have to waste everything we have done: We have to remain calm and get back to not giving away goals.”
Atalanta slipped to 12th after Torino beat relegation-threatened Frosinone 4-2, ending a run of three consecutive defeats.
Napoli had lost only once in all competitions since an opening day defeat at Sassuolo, but Eusebio di Francesco’s side were the only team unbeaten against the top six.
It looked like that record was set to continue when they were awarded an early penalty after Nicola Sansone was brought down by Raul Albiol. Falcinelli converted to get Sassuolo off to a good start.
Napoli leveled when Callejon headed in a pinpoint cross from Lorenzo Insigne.
Higuain fired Napoli in front from almost the same position three minutes from halftime, timing his run perfectly to get between two defenders and slot Marek Hamsik’s cross into the far-right corner.
Both sides had chances in the second half, before Higuain sealed the result with the last kick of the game, managing to squeeze the ball between a diving Andrea Consigli and the post.
In Bergamo, Atalanta started the stronger and took the lead when Murillo slid in to intercept Boukary Drame’s cross from the left, but succeeded only in poking the ball past his own goalkeeper.
Atalanta returned the favor eight minutes later when, following a delightful one-two between Mauro Icardi and Stevan Jovetic, Toloi fired into his own net off the underside of the crossbar.
Handanovic kept Inter in the match, pulling off what could be the save of the season. Wearing a baseball cap to keep the sun out of his eyes, he somehow managed to stop Luca Cigarini’s effort from point-blank range with his trailing foot.
“Handanovic’s save? Impossible, I don’t understand how he could have done it,” Atalanta coach Edy Reja said. “Maybe we deserved more, even if Inter could have also punished us at the end. We have to continue like this.”
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