Juventus closed in on another record as they beat AS Roma 1-0 in Serie A on Sunday to keep the pressure on leaders SSC Napoli, who won 4-2 at 10-man UC Sampdoria.
Paulo Dybala struck again to help Juventus secure an 11th successive league win and remain two points behind Napoli, while Inter’s woes continued.
“We played with character and had a great game technically, and at the end that gave us the win,” Paul Pogba said. “When we play like this it’s a pleasure.”
Serie A’s top goalscorer, Gonzalo Higuain, was also on target again to set Napoli on their way. Lorenzo Insigne netted a penalty before goals from Marek Hamsik and Dries Mertens sealed the victory.
“With hard work, in life you can do anything,” Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said. “There are still 17 matches left, and at this point, there’s no advantage that gives you a guarantee. Now we are happy, but we don’t yet know if we have the strength to remain at these levels especially because we are a new group.”
Inter are now six points off the pace after a last-minute equalizer by 10-man Carpi held it to a 1-1 draw. ACF Fiorentina are above Inter on goal difference after Josip Ilicic and Gonzalo Rodriguez secured a 2-0 win over Torino.
Elsewhere, US Sassuolo lost 2-0 against Bologna, while SS Lazio came from behind to beat Chievo Verona 4-1 in a match that saw both sides finish with 10 men and the visitors miss a penalty.
Palermo also won 4-1, against Udinese, and Hellas Verona drew 1-1 against Genoa.
Juventus needed a win to cut the deficit back after Napoli’s earlier victory, but Roma — playing in only their second game under Luciano Spalletti following Rudi Garcia’s dismissal — were desperate to get back to winning ways.
Roma put in a good defensive performance but, with the match seemingly destined for a draw, Dybala broke the deadlock in the 77th minute. The Argentina forward raced onto Pogba’s through ball and fired across into the bottom right corner for his 12th goal of the season.
Edin Dzeko thought he had equalized, but play had already been stopped for his nudge on Andrea Barzagli. Roma fell 12 points behind Napoli.
“We had a good game, we conceded little but we should have been more daring,” Spalletti said. “At the moment we’re not being helped by the morale — which is on the ground — and tired legs. We did something positive, but too little.”
Juventus need just two more victories to match the club record of most consecutive league wins. They won 13 from the 32nd match of the 2013-2014 season to the sixth match of 2014-2015.
Their most successive wins in a single season was 12, in 2013-2014. The record winning streak in Serie A is Inter’s 17-match run in 2006-2007.
Higuain had been in good form with 20 goals in as many league matches this season and, although he missed an early chance, he got Napoli off to the perfect start in the ninth minute, pouncing onto Edgar Barreto’s woeful backpass and firing into the bottom left corner.
Matters went from bad to worse for Barreto in the 17th minute when he barged over Raul Albiol and Insigne converted the resulting penalty.
Joaquin Correa got Sampdoria back into the game on the stroke of halftime, but the home side went down to 10 men shortly before the hour mark when Mattia Cassani was sent off for a second booking.
Napoli made the most of the man advantage as Hamsik immediately scored after a slalom run between two defenders.
Samp got back into the match again in the 73rd with a glancing header from an Eder corner, but substitute Mertens sealed the result 10 minutes from time.
Inter was eager to get back to winning ways in the league following a defeat and a draw, which had seen them fall from top spot.
Rodrigo Palacio broke the deadlock shortly before halftime, tapping into an empty net after Ivan Perisic’s shot was deflected into his path. And Inter appeared assured of the three points when Lorenzo Pasciuti was sent off following a second yellow card, seven minutes from time.
However, Kevin Lasagna stunned the San Siro crowd with a stoppage-time equalizer after dodging the offside trap to run onto Raffaele Bianco’s through ball.
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