Juventus and AS Roma shared a 1-1 draw in Turin on Saturday after visiting forward Francesco Totti canceled out Vincenzo Iaquinta’s opener to keep both teams on the fringes of the Serie A title race.
Roma coach Claudio Ranieri, facing the club who surprisingly sacked him two seasons ago, opted for Mirko Vucinic and Totti up front with Marco Borriello dropped to the bench, but the partnership only worked in patches.
Iaquinta got the nod over Alessandro Del Piero to start for fourth-placed Juve and although he wasted a good early chance, the striker expertly converted former Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani’s assist after 35 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
The duo now hope to be recalled to the Italy squad for Wednesday’s friendly with Romania, although a weary Iaquinta was substituted early in the second period.
Juve, with youth team defender Frederik Sorensen forced to play at rightback and substitute Armand Traore making his debut at leftback, could not hang on to the lead and Totti equalized deep into first-half stoppage-time with a penalty.
Totti won the spot kick when his own shot was clearly blocked by the hands of Simone Pepe.
Both sides could have won, but Juve shaded the second half.
“We should have been more incisive and concrete,” Ranieri told Sky TV. “It was two teams who wanted to win. In the first half, maybe we had the chance to take charge, but we didn’t strike. Instead they scored with their first effort.”
Roma, runners-up last season, have steadily climbed the table after a bad start and are now just four points off top spot, with Juve three points behind leaders AC Milan after 12 games.
Fiorentina earlier beat visitors Cesena 1-0 thanks to Alberto Gilardino’s well-taken 59th-minute goal, but strike partner Adrian Mutu, who has only just returned from a drugs ban, limped off with a groin problem in the first half.
Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side moved into the top half of the table for the first time this season, while Cesena, who beat SS Lazio in midweek, stayed second bottom.
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,
The Philippines curling team has been rocking it in Harbin, claiming the tropical nation’s first Asian Winter Games medal yesterday with a victory in the men’s final against South Korea. The team of Marc Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and alternate Benjo Delarmente took gold with a 5-3 win at Harbin Pingfang Curling Arena. The Philippines Olympic Committee was quick to celebrate with a post on Instagram to mark the historic gold. “This is the first-ever medal for the Philippines at the Asian Winter Games, and the highest achievement for a Southeast Asian athlete in the Games’ history! What an incredible
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui were defeated by their Chinese counterparts 3-0 on Saturday in the men’s doubles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash. Lin and Kao received their silver medals after being defeated by third-seeded duo Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin of China 2-11, 4-11, 11-13. The Taiwan pair were left playing catch-up early in the match after the Chinese duo proved unstoppable in the first and second game. Although Lin and Kao picked up their pace in the third game and at one point took a 10-8 lead, they were crucially unable to take
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Tuesday dumped compatriot and second seed Hsieh Su-wei out of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Open to set up another potential Taiwanese showdown, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in the second round. Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu, who earlier this year won the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Hobart International, defeated Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Grandstand Court 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Wu and Jiang on Sunday advanced to the round-of-16 with a 7-6 (7/7),