Champions Juventus’ Serie A game was snowed off on Sunday as SS Lazio moved third with a 3-0 win over US Sassuolo at the expense of AS Roma, who were beaten 2-0 by AC Milan.
Juventus are a point behind leaders SSC Napoli, who were due to play Cagliari in Sardinia yesterday, and had been looking to move top against Atalanta BC in Turin but for blizzard-like conditions which saw 5cm of snow pile up before kickoff.
“It’s possible to play in these conditions, but it would not be a spectacle worthy of the top flight. There is also the issue of potential harm to the players,” Juventus director Beppe Marotta said.
Photo: Reuters
Ciro Immobile and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic continued their goal-scoring sprees to lift Lazio into third place, as Patrick Cutrone and Davide Calabria gave AC Milan their first win at the Stadio Olimpico in six years.
Roma slipped to fifth behind Inter, with AC Milan just outside the European places in seventh.
“Obviously, it’s a wake up call,” Roma coach Eusebio di Francesco said of the defeat which came just days after throwing away a lead to lose 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetesk in the UEFA Champions League. “We cannot be happy with this result, nor our season overall. We completely lost our way after the first goal.”
Cutrone broke through after the break, with defender Calabria adding the second after 74 minutes.
Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma — celebrating his 19th birthday — did well to parry an early Cengiz Under strike and also cleared a close-range Patrik Schick effort over the bar.
“It’s an important win, one that will make a difference,” Cutrone said, before crediting coach Gennaro Gattuso with transforming the team. “We are really united now and proving we are a great team. The coach really cares about the squad and we’ve come together under him.”
Earlier, Lazio and Sassuolo finished a bad-tempered clash with 10 men, with in-form Serb Milinkovic-Savic scoring a brace to bring his tally to 11 goals this season.
Lazio doubled their lead amid controversy, with a penalty awarded following consultation with the video assistant referee after the ball struck Federico Peluso’s hand.
Immobile stepped up to slot home to give him six goals in Lazio’s past three games — 32 this season and a league-leading 23 in Serie A.
“I’m sure he’ll win the Golden Boot, he deserves it for how he works every day,” Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi said of Immobile. “The important thing is that we continue to perform like today.”
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
RSS