Two late goals from Mirko Vucinic and Kwadwo Asamoah sent Serie A champions Juventus back to the top of the table thanks to a 3-1 win away at Genoa on Sunday.
A double strike from Brazilian midfielder Hernanes and a second-half effort from Miroslva Klose had been enough to send SS Lazio top thanks to a 3-1 victory away at AC Chievo Verona in the day’s early match.
Three days before meeting Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League, Juve showed poise and determination to remain unbeaten in 42 matches.
Photo: AFP
Genoa dominated the first half and went in at the break a goal up thanks to a 17th-minute strike from Ciro Immobile, but a double Juve substitution just before the hour mark, with Vucinic coming on for Alessandro Matri and Asamoah replacing Paolo de Ceglie, proved inspirational.
Genoa seemed ready to grab a second goal when Marco Borriello slammed a header against the bar just before the hour mark. Gianluigi Buffon then did well to save Andrea Bertolacci’s strike.
However, Juventus pulled level moments later when midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini shaped a great shot past French goalkeeper Sebastien Frey from 25m.
The match then turned when Bertolacci fouled Asamoah and Vucinic put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot.
Asamoah put the match beyond reach for Genoa when he pounced to slam the ball past Frey after Vucinic’s cross came off Genoa’s Swedish defender Andreas Granqvist.
Juve caretaker coach Massimo Carrera, standing in as Antonio Conte serves a 10-month ban for his role in an illegal sports-betting affair, said the match could have gone either way.
“We suffered in the first half, but in the second half we played wider, increased the pace and managed to turn things around,” Carrera told Sky Sports, underlining Buffon’s contribution. “Gigi made a great save, without that miracle it might have finished 3-2.”
Prior to Sunday, only four teams had managed to win their first two games of the season and the same four maintained their 100 percent records.
In a highly entertaining match, UC Sampdoria gave the other half of Genoa some cheer with a 3-2 win away at struggling newcomers Delfino Pescara 1936, while SSC Napoli continued their promising start to the season with a 3-1 home win over Parma.
While Lazio were celebrating, their cross-town rivals AS Roma were left scratching their heads after a 3-2 reverse to Bologna at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma had a 2-0 lead at halftime thanks to a headed goal from Alessandro Florenzi and a left-foot strike from Argentine Erik Lamela, but the Giallorossi were stunned late in the second half. On-loan Genoa striker Gilardino pulled one back on 72 minutes and the visitors leveled through playmaker Alessandro Diamani a minute later.
Alberto Gilardino then grabbed a shock winner on 90 minutes to leave Zdenek Zeman’s side in seventh with only four points.
“We had a solid first half and after we had settled into the match, Bologna came back at us,” Zeman said, admitting the hosts had suffered a “heavy blow.”
Inter began their late match away at Torino in need of a win to move out of a midtable position and Andrea Stramaccioni’s side had to wait only 13 minutes before Argentine Diego Milito put them ahead.
Inter, who host Rubin Kazan on Thursday in their Europa League Group H opener, then had Antonio Cassano to thank for the 83rd-minute goal that sealed a 2-0 win and moved them up to fifth, three points adrift of Juventus.
ACF Fiorentina’s 2-0 win over Catania came courtesy of goals from Montenegrin striker Stevan Jovetic and former La Viola striker Luca Toni, who made his debut after recently resigning for the Florence-based club.
Elsewhere, AC Siena drew 2-2 at home to Udinese.
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
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
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS