AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti hailed the continuing impact of veteran forward Filippo Inzaghi as the reigning European champions closed in on fourth place in Serie A.
Inzaghi bagged a poacher’s hat-trick as AC Milan won 4-1 at rock-bottom Livorno to move within two points of Fiorentina in the final Champions League qualifying position.
La Viola had conceded an injury-time equalizer as they drew 2-2 at home to Sampdoria in a match between two of the three teams chasing that crucial fourth spot.
PHOTO: AFP
Fiorentina stay fourth on 60 points, two ahead of Milan, who are two ahead of Sampdoria with three matches still to play.
But it was Inzaghi’s striking instincts that proved invaluable to AC Milan as they overcame Livorno.
He tapped home a first-half opener from Kaka’s square pass in the box, despite looking suspiciously offside, and then added two close range headers after the break.
Inzaghi’s recent return to form and fitness has coincided with Milan’s late season charge for a place in Europe’s premier competition next year.
“I don’t want to talk about the past, but often we forget that Inzaghi missed three months because of injury, but when he has played from the start he’s scored 16 goals in as many matches,” Ancelotti said.
With former three-time world player of the year Ronaldo sidelined with a long-term knee injury, teenage forward Pato feeling the strains of a tough introduction to European soccer and Alberto Gilardino short of form, Inzaghi’s contribution has been vital.
With just two points to make up on Fiorentina and two home matches left to just one for the Florence-based club, Milan could even consider themselves favorites to snatch fourth spot.
The biggest drawback for them is that they have to play the Milan derby against Inter next weekend, with their cross city rivals looking to sew up the Serie A title.
A late strike from Sampdoria’s Daniele Gastaldello broke Fiorentina hearts after they had seemed set to win thanks to goals from Cristian Vieri and Adrian Mutu.
The title race is still alive as AS Roma beat Torino 4-1 at home to ensure Inter, who beat in-form Cagliari 2-1 at the San Siro, still need one more victory from their final three matches to claim a third straight title.
Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring for Roma from the spot and Mirko Vucinic and Alessnadro Mancini with two added the other goals during the first half as Roma cruised.
Inter scored through Julio Cruz and Marco Materazzi to keep on track.
Juventus secured their place in the Champions League next season with a 5-2 thrashing of Lazio.
They led 4-0 at the break following goals from Girogio Chiellini, Mauro Camoranesi, Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet.
Lazio pulled two back through Rolando Bianchi and Sebastiano Siviglia, before Chiellini’s second rounded off the scoring.
At the bottom of the table Empoli escaped the relegation zone with a 1-0 victory at Genoa, leaving Reggina and Parma just above Livorno.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburg Penguins on Wednesday put a squeeze on the penalty box in Game 3 of their NHL playoff series — with 11 players cramped inside their designated punishment areas. Each could have snapped a team photo after a melee broke out in the second period of the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Penguins in their Eastern Conference first-round series. “It was a party in there,” penalized Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler said. The celebration extended into the joyous locker room after the Flyers took a 3-0 series lead. Penguins forward Bryan Rust slammed Travis Konecny to the ice behind the
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
RSS