Wasteful Inter spurned a host of chances and needed a second-half strike from Argentine forward Diego Milito to beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 in their Champions League quarter-final, first leg on Wednesday.
Milito rifled in a right-footed shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box in the 65th minute at the San Siro after a strong run by Wesley Sneijder.
CSKA closed down Inter well in the first half, but showed little ambition as the Italian champions increased the tempo after the break.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The hosts failed to put away a series of chances either side of Milito’s goal, with CSKA keeper Igor Akinfeyev making some fine saves. Inter striker Goran Pandev also had an effort cleared off the line.
“Unfortunately, I can’t start thinking about the semi-final yet,” Inter coach Jose Mourinho told a news conference. “Unfortunately I still have to think about another hard match in Moscow.”
“We had chances for a better result - 1-0 leaves the tie open, but we are in front,” he said, adding that Inter had “overcome their mental block with the Champions League” after recent disappointments in the competition.
CSKA, who upset Sevilla in the previous round, gave no signs of stage fright in the early exchanges, with Milos Krasic making a good break down the right straight after kickoff.
Inter, without suspended center back Lucio and midfielder Thiago Motta, looked to be struggling to find a way through the Russians’ defensive maze.
However, they woke up after seeing their keeper Julio Cesar push away a Yevgeny Aldonin effort on one of CSKA’s rare foray forward 10 minutes into the second half.
Akinfeyev did well to deny Samuel Eto’o, Dejan Stankovic and Esteban Cambiasso and Pandev afterwards and Sneijder hit a great chance wide in the closing stages.
Krasic and Aldonin will miss next week’s return leg after being booked.
“Today’s result could not have been better, but it could have been worse,” said CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky, adding that he does not think his club’s artificial pitch will give them a big advantage in the second leg. “The synthetic pitch will not be fundamental for the teams. It has never been unfavorable to our rivals.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS