Goals by Lucas Biglia and Ricardo Kishna secured a 2-1 win over Bologna and gave SS Lazio top spot in Italian Serie A on Saturday’s opening day.
Third-place finishers last season, Lazio have taken one step towards the Champions League group stages after beating Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 in the first leg of their play-off last week.
Days before the return leg in Germany, Stefano Pioli’s men chalked up their first win of what they hope is set to be an even more successful season although it came at a price with midfielder Biglia stretchered off with a calf injury in the second half.
Biglia gave the hosts the lead inside 20 minutes when he rammed the ball past Antonio Mirante after a poor Bologna clearance. Pioli handed Kishna — who was signed last month from Ajax — his debut in a front three alongside striker Keita Balde and Italy international Antonio Candreva, and the 20-year-old Dutch winger was soon on target.
A Candreva cross found its way through for Kishna to control and fire into the net at the back post for a near perfect Serie A debut.
“The three points is very encouraging, I’m delighted to have scored,” said Kishna, who is of Dutch-Surinamese descent. Bologna reduced the arrears on the stroke of half-time when Matteo Mancosu, also on his Serie A debut, ran on to a long ball to smash the finish in off the underside of Etrit Berisha’s crossbar.
Biglia was stretchered off shortly after the restart and is now a doubt for the return leg against Leverkusen on Wednesday.
“We don’t know exactly how bad he is but we hope it’s not serious, he’s crucial for us,” Pioli said. “We suffered more than we should have and should have wrapped up the three points when we had the chance.”
Earlier, versatile right-back Alessandro Florenzi struck a second-half leveler in a 1-1 draw at Hellas Verona as AS Roma kicked off their bid for the Serie A title in unconvincing fashion.
Verona are notoriously tough to beat at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium and Bosko Jankovic gave Andra Mandorlini’s side the lead on the hour after collecting from Emil Halfredsson to beat Wojciech Szczesny in the Roma goal from yards out.
Florenzi leveled just five minutes later when he beat Rafael with a drive from outside the area, and the visitors went on to create a handful of chances in the closing period only to settle for a draw.
Roma had signed Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah on loan in the close season but Dzeko headed over a late corner and further chances from Miralem Pjanic and Radja Nainggolan went amiss.
The draw ended Roma’s hopes of starting the season with a bang as they did two years ago when they set a Serie A record of 10 opening wins.
Roma’s first big test of the season comes as early as next week when they host Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico (Rome).
Juventus, league and Cup double winners last season and beaten Champions League finalists against Barcelona, were due to host Udinese yesterday.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS