Inter Milan's seemingly relentless march toward the Serie A title continued on Sunday with a comprehensive victory over one of their main title rivals.
Inter were at their dominant best as they won 2-0 at Fiorentina, confirming their coach Roberto Mancini's pre-match assertion that the Viola are themselves not ready to challenge for top honors.
Cesare Prandelli's young team simply were not as powerful or effective as their visitors and went down to a pair of first-half goals from Chilean Luis Jimenez and Argentine Julio Cruz.
Mancini had said before the match that Prandelli's team lacked the experience for this season but that they could develop in the future into a top class outfit.
And this defeat, Fiorentina's second of the season, saw them slump to seven points behind league leaders Inter, who also have a game in hand. Only Roma are keeping up with Inter at the moment.
"Yes, this Sunday could be a turning point," Mancini told Sky Sport. "Right now, Inter and Roma are the best two squads. Hopefully there will soon be another turning point and Roma will lose some points along the way."
Jimenez opened the scoring on 10 minutes, slotting home after running on to a through ball from the excellent Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Sweden forward was also the provider on the stroke of half time as he fed Cruz to squeeze the ball into the far corner of the net past French goalkeeper Sebastian Frey.
Ibrahimovic was unstoppable and could easily have had a hat trick on the day, but found Frey in inspired form.
Fiorentina's former Chelsea forward Adrian Mutu was not too disheartened by the result.
"Today we were up against a great team such as Inter. It's not gone well for us but nearly everyone has lost to the Nerazzurri [black-and-blues]," he said.
Inter's lead at the top of the table was pegged at three points by Roma who came out on top in an unlikely early-season title-battle against Udinese.
Roma took the lead after just 11 minutes in slightly fortuitous circumstances. Brazil center-back Juan got in the way of David Pizarro's effort from outside the box and the ball dropped kindly for him to poke home past Samir Handanovic in the Udinese goal.
But a minute later and Udinese were level through former Manchester United target Fabio Quagliarella, who flicked the ball up, swivelled and fired home from outside the box.
Udinese also put the ball in the net on 25 minutes but Quagliarella was adjudged offside and two minutes later, Roma scored the winner.
Udinese stay fourth while Juventus are third in the table, five points behind Inter.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS