Italian Cup winners Lazio stunned Serie A champions Inter with two goals in two minutes early in the second half to win the Super Cup 2-1 at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium last night.
Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem opened the scoring against the run of play in the 61st minute and Inter had barely recovered from the shock before Lazio skipper Tommaso Rocchi chipped Inter keeper Julio Cesar to double the lead.
Inter piled on the pressure and new signing Samuel Eto’o lashed the ball into the net to cut the deficit with 15 minutes to go, but Lazio held on to win the traditional pre-season contest for a third time.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A crowd of some 65,000 made plenty of noise at the Bird’s Nest for the first sporting event at the stadium since last September on the first anniversary of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
■LIPPI NAMES SQUAD
PHOTO: REUTERS
REUTERS, ROME
Italy coach Marcello Lippi named some fresh faces in his squad for Wednesday’s friendly against Switzerland in Basel, but resisted calls for a major shake up after his side’s poor Confederations Cup showing.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lippi has called up three uncapped players — Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio and Genoa defenders Salvatore Bocchetti and Domenico Criscito.
Udinese playmaker Gaetano D’Agostino and Cagliari keeper Federico Marchetti are back in the fold after making their international debuts in the world champions’ 3-0 win over Northern Ireland in a friendly in June.
Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale returns after missing the end of last season with a knee injury he suffered in Italy’s 2-0 win in Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier in March.
Otherwise the rest of the squad is made up of members of the Confederations Cup expedition in June, when Italy were knocked out at the group stage.
The selection is also confirmation Lippi intends to keep using a core of players from his 2006 World Cup-winning squad.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
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