A goal from Brazilian Maicosuel gave Udinese a surprise 1-0 Coppa Italia win over Inter on Thursday, while AS Roma also reached the quarter-finals with a 1-0 victory over UC Sampdoria.
Maicosuel finished off an incisive passing move with a first-time shot from close range just after the half-hour mark to deny visiting Inter a likely derby tie with AC Milan in the quarter-finals.
Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan take on Serie B side Spezia at the San Siro on Wednesday.
Udinese’s win was a boost for Francesco Guidolin’s side who are 13th in Serie A having lost 10 of their 18 matches.
Inter, who are sixth in the league, dominated the tie, but struggled to create chances.
Coach Rudi Garcia’s Roma, chasing a 10th Coppa Italia trophy, next face Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome later this month after Vasileios Torosidis tapped the ball into the net for the hosts in the sixth minute.
It was an impressive team performance by Roma on new signing Radja Nainggolan’s debut.
They would have managed a more comfortable margin of victory but for a sterling display from visiting goalkeeper Vincenzo Fiorillo, who among a series of saves pulled off an incredible double stop to deny Alessandro Florenzi.
The tie with Juve is a chance for revenge for Roma after their 3-0 defeat by the Serie A champions last Sunday.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
RSS