Zlatan Ibrahimovic starred as Inter cruised to a 3-0 victory over rock-bottom Reggina at the San Siro to re-establish their seven-point lead at the top of Serie A on Sunday.
Second-placed Juventus had briefly reduced the arrears on Saturday with a highly-impressive 4-1 romp at Roma, but Jose Mourinho’s men showed they were in no mood to concede any ground in the title race.
Meanwhile third-placed AC Milan were held to a 0-0 draw at Napoli, who have not won in 11 matches.
Two goals in the first 10 minutes effectively turned the top-versus-bottom clash into a non-contest, despite Inter playing with midfielder Esteban Cambiasso in a patchwork centrer-back pairing due to injuries.
With only nine matches left, the chances of Juve catching Inter are diminishing and may even rest on the pair’s clash in Turin next month.
After his star performance, Ibrahimovic hinted that he may be considering a future away from the San Siro.
“I’m totally focused on winning the title but as for next season, we’ll see,” he said. “I’m very happy to be at Inter but next year we’ll see.”
In the race for fourth place, and the final Champions League qualifying position, Genoa maintained their two-point lead over Fiorentina.
Genoa beat Udinese 2-0 at home with goals from Giuseppe Sculli and Diego Milito while Romania captain Adrian Mutu scored the only goal in Fiorentina’s 1-0 home win over Siena.
In other Serie A matches on Sunday it was:
• Bologna 0, Cagliari 1
• Chievo 1, Palermo 0
• Lecce 2, Atalanta 2
• Torino 1, Sampdoria 3
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
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