Victor Osimhen on Thursday scored twice as SSC Napoli crushed UC Sampdoria 4-0 to remain perfect in Serie A and return to the top of the table.
In the other early game, Ciro Immobile converted a stoppage-time penalty to give SS Lazio a 1-1 draw at Torino. In the late game, Tammy Abraham scored his first home Serie A goal to give Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma a 1-0 victory over Udinese.
In Genoa, visiting Napoli rode their luck in the first 35 minutes.
Photo: EPA-EFE
After 11 minutes home goalkeeper Emil Audero was fooled when Osimhen mishit a close-range volley and had already fallen back across the goal-line by the time the softly-struck ball floated into his grasp.
Sampdoria responded by besieging the Napoli goal, but David Ospina foiled a series of incisive attacks with a string of acrobatic saves.
Napoli took control after 39 minutes when Fabian Ruiz passed the ball into the corner of Audero’s goal.
Osimhen added a second after 50 minutes, running onto Hirving Lozano’s low cross from the right and drilling the ball home from the edge of the six-yard box.
Last season, his first with Napoli, the Nigerian missed more than two months after injuring a shoulder on international duty and then catching COVID-19 while recuperating.
Piotr Zielinski added a carbon-copy goal nine minutes later as he met a low Lozano pullback with a crisp shot.
Osimhen could have had more. He had a strike late in the first half ruled out for offside and later dragged his shot wide when one-on-one with Audero.
“After what happened last season, between the injury and the COVID-19, for me it’s important to start well,” Osimhen said before praising new coach Luciano Spalletti.
“He has helped me, he always gives me confidence and the best way to pay him back is to score goals,” the striker said.
The victory took Napoli back to the top of the table with 15 points from their first five league games under Spalletti. They moved two points ahead of champions Inter and AC Milan.
Sampdoria dropped to 13th, slipping behind Juventus on goal-difference.
Roma climbed to fourth, another point back, after edging out Udinese, with Abraham scoring the only goal.
Teenage rightback Riccardo Calafiori battled up the wing and into the penalty area in the 36th minute. His hard low cross beat Marco Silvestri’s dive at the near post, but forced Abraham to quickly adjust his feet, turning his back to goal and guiding the ball into the unguarded net with the heel of his right boot as he fell over.
Roma finished the game with 10 men after skipper Lorenzo Pellegrini was shown a second yellow card in the 90th minute.
In Turin, penalty specialist Ciro Immobile snatched a point for Lazio with a 91st-minute spot-kick.
Marko Pjaca gave Torino the lead in the 76th minute with a crisp header.
As the game entered stoppage-time, Koffi Djidji caught Vedat Muriqi with a clumsy challenge. Immobile rolled in the penalty for his league-leading sixth goal of the season.
Immobile said he felt Lazio should not have needed his late penalty.
“I’m not particularly happy, we need to work harder, not be afraid to play,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB