Leaders Juventus saw their 13-game winning streak come to an end in a 1-1 draw away to rock-bottom US Sassuolo on Saturday as title rivals AS Roma closed to within one point of the Serie A lead.
Francesco Totti inspired Roma to a 3-0 win over AC Chievo Verona earlier in the day.
Juventus were largely expected to account for Sassuolo, but after Paul Pogba leveled Simone Zaza’s 13th-minute strike six minutes later Massimiliano Allegri’s visitors struggled to find a way through a determined home defense.
Photo: Reuters
Juve remain top of the pile, despite dropping their first points of the season.
“Technically, we didn’t play well and we just couldn’t find the goal as we usually do,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia. “But we accept the draw. Now we have to go and look at what didn’t work tonight.”
Chievo had scored just once on six previous visits to the Stadio Olimpico and barely mustered a shot on goal all night as Roma went about their business with consummate ease.
Roma took the lead after only four minutes when Mattia Destro dived to head Miralem Pjanic’s corner past Francesco Bardi and Adem Ljajic doubled the hosts’ lead in fine style on 26 minutes.
Roma wrapped up the points in the 32nd minute when Totti slammed a spot-kick past Bardi after Daniele de Rossi had been hauled down on the edge of the area.
BUNDESLIGA
AFP, BERLIN
Leaders Bayern Munich earned their fifth straight victory on Saturday as Spainiard Xabi Alonso netted his first Bundesliga goal in a 6-0 rout of Werder Bremen.
Bayern maintained a four-point lead at the top of the table as former Germany captain Philipp Lahm and Mario Geotze both scored twice.
“People say it’s hard to get back into it after the international break, but we played well, had good positioning and good buildup,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. “It was a bit easier for us after Philipp scored the first goal.”
Lahm started the rout when he crashed his shot home from 14m out with 20 minutes gone at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Alonso, who joined Bayern from Real Madrid in August, netted his first goal for the club when he drove a free-kick under the Bremen wall on 27 minutes.
Thomas Mueller put the hosts 3-0 up when he converted a penalty after being dragged down in the area by Bremen’s Sebastian Proedl just before halftime.
Goetze made it 4-0 at the break when he held off Congo defender Assani Lukimya to bury his shot in the far corner.
Lahm and Goetze both added their second goals as the hosts profited from a tiring defense in the final 20 minutes.
Borussia Moenchengladbach went second in the table with a 3-0 win against Hannover 96 as Germany squad member Max Kruse scored twice and Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka netted a free-kick.
Roberto di Matteo got off to a winning start as Schalke 04 coach when the Royal Blues picked up only their third win of the season with a 2-0 victory at home to Hertha BSC.
Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund’s horror league run continued as they lost 2-1 to Cologne to go five Bundesliga games without a win, including three defeats in a row.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen threw away a three-goal lead in their 3-3 draw at plucky VfB Stuttgart.
VfL Wolfsburg went third with a 2-1 win over SC Freiburg, while FSV Mainz 05 went fourth after their 2-1 win at home against Augsburg.
LA LIGA
AFP, MADRID
Barcelona maintained their four-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga ahead of next weekend’s first El Clasico of the season with a 3-0 win over Sociedad Deportiva Eibar on Saturday.
Earlier, Madrid cruised to victory as they secured a seventh consecutive win in all competitions with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice in a 5-0 rout away to Levante UD.
After a frustrating opening 45 minutes, Barca finally went in front when Xavi Hernandez dinked home his first goal of the season from Lionel Messi’s slide rule pass on the hour mark.
Neymar then volleyed home to double the hosts’ advantage before the Brazilian teed up Messi to drive home the third and take the Argentine to within one goal of equaling Telmo Zarra as the all-time leading scorer in La Liga.
After halftime, Xavi and Messi exchanged passes before the former lofted the ball over the advancing goalkeeper to the relief of coach Luis Enrique.
The floodgates then opened as Dani Alves’ cross was thumped home by Neymar for his ninth goal of the season 19 minutes from time.
Neymar then turned provider as his cushioned pass into Messi’s path was rifled in off the far post by his strike partner to take his tally in La Liga to 250 goals in 285 games.
In other games, Athletic Bilbao and RC Celta de Vigo had a 1-1 draw, while Malaga beat Cordoba 2-1.
LIGUE 1
AFP, PARIS
AS Monaco continued their mini-revival with a 2-0 victory over Evian Thonon Gaillard on Saturday, while AS Saint-Etienne edged Lorient 1-0.
Elsewhere, 10-man En Avant de Guingamp beat LOSC Lille Metropole 2-1, Nantes drew 1-1 with Stade de Reims, SC Bastia downed OGC Nice 1-0 and Metz drew 0-0 with Stade Rennais.
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
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
RSS