Gonzalo Higuain on Sunday scored the winner as Juventus inflicted a first Serie A defeat of the season on Inter with a 2-1 victory which sent the defending champions top of Serie A.
Substitute Higuain slotted home on 80 minutes after fellow Argentine Paulo Dybala had opened the scoring in the fourth minute at the San Siro.
Another Argentine, forward Lautaro Martinez, pulled Inter level from the penalty spot on 18 minutes, but coach Antonio Conte lost in his first meeting against his former club since leaving Juve to take over the Italy national team in 2014.
Photo: AFP
Juventus moved one point ahead of Inter after seven games as they target a ninth consecutive title, and first under Maurizo Sarri.
“Overtaking at the top is insignificant right now,” former Chelsea boss Sarri said. “The important things is that we showed a performance of character and personality against a strong team in a high-tension environment. We deserved to win.”
Sarri started with Dybala and Federico Bernardeschi up front alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
Higuain — who also scored in Juventus’ 3-0 UEFA Champions League win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen last week — began on the bench.
The champions got off to a blistering start with Miralem Pjanic setting up Dybala, who took Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic by surprise.
Ronaldo rattled the crossbar and then had a goal ruled out when Dybala was in an offside position, but Inter got back on level terms when Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt handled the ball, with Lautaro drilling past Wojciech Szczesny.
The hosts were hit with Stefano Sensi going off injured and Sarri made a double substitution after an hour, bringing on in-form Higuain and Rodrigo Bentacur.
Ronaldo and Bentancur combined to send Higuain through for the winner, with Szczesny doing well to deny Matias Vecino as Inter desperately pushed forward for an equalizer.
“Juve showed their heavy artillery,” said Conte, who coached the Turin giants to the first three of their eight consecutive titles.
“Congratulations to them, we’ll roll up our sleeves now,” added Conte, whose side lost their Champions League game to Barcelona 2-1 last week.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta BC celebrated moving back to the Gewiss Stadium with a 3-1 win over promoted US Lecce that keeps the Bergamo side third on 16 points, but last season’s runners-up SSC Napoli are now six points behind Juventus in fourth following a goalless draw at Torino.
AS Roma are fifth, a point behind Napoli, after their match against Cagliari at the Stadio Olimpico finished 1-1 after Nikola Kalinic’s last-gasp goal for the hosts was disallowed.
Roma stay a point ahead of city rivals SS Lazio, who drew 2-2 at Bologna, with Serie A top-scorer Ciro Immobile getting both goals for the visitors to bring his tally to seven goals in as many games.
In Tuscany, Nikola Milenkovic nodded in the only goal after 72 minutes to give ACF Fiorentina their third consecutive win.
Fiorentina are eighth, while Udinese are a point above the relegation zone.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS