Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table.
No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday.
Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s late kick-off.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Three defeats in one week hurts, and we’re not used to such a run,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “It was a very important game, but we lacked a clear head. We need to try and get our energy back, and we’ll go to Barcelona with a lot of respect for this team, but without fear.”
Argentinian Soule stunned the San Siro when he slotted home coolly as the ball ping-ponged around the Inter box in the 22nd minute.
The win moved Roma up to sixth place on 60 points, two off the final UEFA Champions League spot.
In another blow for Inter, they risk being without defender Benjamin Pavard for their upcoming Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona after the French international limped off in the 15th minute with an ankle issue.
McTominay lit the blue touch paper in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona when he ghosted in at the near post to turn Napoli into the lead on seven minutes against Torino.
The former Manchester United midfielder repeated the trick four minutes before the break to send Napoli clear at the top of Serie A on 74 points with just four matches remaining.
The brace brought McTominay’s league total to 11 goals, one behind Napoli’s leading scorer Romelu Lukaku.
“For us it’s keep calm, keep everything relaxed and go game by game, because this game is not important unless we win the next one and the next one after that,” McTominay told DAZN. “It would mean the world as obviously the squad did that two years ago [Napoli won the Scudetto in 2023].”
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
RSS