SSC Napoli risk a 3-0 forfeit for failing to turn up for their Serie A clash against Juventus amid a row over COVID-19 protocols in Italy on Sunday, allowing title rivals Atalanta BC and AC Milan to move top of Serie A ahead of Inter, who were held at SS Lazio.
Gennaro Gattuso’s Napoli had been top of the league going into the weekend with two wins in as many games as they target a third Serie A title and first in 30 years, but Eljif Elmas and Piotr Zielinski’s positive COVID-19 tests forced the southerners into home isolation on the instructions of health authorities in the Campania region.
However, Serie A said that all the health protocols were in place for the match in Turin to go ahead safely.
Photo: AFP
“[Napoli president Aurelio] De Laurentiis asked me to postpone the match, I replied that there are regulations to be respected,” Juventus president Andrea Agnelli told Sky Sport Italia.
“A 3-0 win? I always prefer to win on the field,” Agnelli added, whose side had four points after two games as they chase a 10th consecutive title.
Amid the turmoil, Andrea Pirlo’s champions prepared for the game as usual. The Juventus bus pulled into the Allianz Stadium an hour beforehand, with the players remaining in their tracksuits on the pitch.
The match was eventually abandoned 45 minutes after its scheduled start time, with Napoli’s fate now depending on a meeting of Italian league officials today.
Elsewhere, Inter were held 1-1 in a bad-tempered game against Lazio in Rome, where both teams finished a man down.
Atalanta crushed Cagliari 5-2 in their first game in Bergamo this season, bringing their tally to 13 goals in three games played.
AC Milan beat promoted Spezia 3-0 to extend their unbeaten run to 15 games.
Hellas Verona fell to their first defeat of the season after Jasmin Kurtic scored within the first minute to give Parma a 1-0 win, their first this season, while Benevento defeated Bologna 1-0.
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