Juventus beat injury-ravaged AS Roma 4-1 at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Saturday to keep alive their faint Serie A title hopes.
Vincenzo Iaquinta was the hero with a brace as second-placed Juve cut Inter lead at the top of the table to four points, ahead of the champions’ match against rock-bottom Reggina yesterday.
It was a fifth straight league win for Juventus whose belief in their title chances is growing week by week.
PHOTO: AFP
Their hosts have now won only two of their last eight league matches and this result will have hit their hopes of finishing fourth and claiming a place in next season’s Champions League.
Roma came into this game missing an entire team of players with seven injured and four suspended.
Their patchwork outfit saw the likes of Brazilian youngster Filipe, French winger Jeremy Menez and center-back Simone Loria make rare starts while Max Tonetto was played out of position at right midfield.
The first half was a dull affair until John Arne Riise escaped down the left past a napping Zdenek Grygera and crossed to Tonetto but his shot from close-range was blocked.
On 34 minutes Juventus went in front with a goal of sublime simplicity.
Sebastian Giovinco played a one-two with Christian Poulsen and then fed Iaqunita who cut inside Loria and curled a shot around Brazilian goalkeeper Doni.
Juve headed into the break in front but their lead lasted only three minutes after the restart.
Menez swung over a poor corner but it somehow found it’s way through to Loria in the middle of the box and his first time finish was crisp and precise.
It did not take long for Juventus to restore their lead, though, with a touch of fortune about it.
Grygera’s cross flicked off Riise’s head and looped up for Iaquinta to head home at the back post despite the attentions of Philippe Mexes.
Any hope of a Roma come-back took a severe blow midway through the second half when Olof Mellberg rose unopposed to head home an Alessandro Del Piero corner.
Czech veteran Pavel Nedved wrapped up the scoring a quarter of an hour from the end with a 20m volley into the bottom corner.
In the day’s other game a Michele Paolucci goal gave Catania a 1-0 home win over Lazio.
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
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS