Kenan Yildiz on Sunday fired Juventus back from two goals down to draw 4-4 in an incredible clash at Inter, which allowed SSC Napoli to extend their Serie A lead to four points.
Turkey starlet Yildiz came off the bench with around half an hour left at a packed and pulsating San Siro and brought third-placed Juve back from the dead with two superb finishes in the final 20 minutes.
The 19-year-old stunned the more than 70,000 home fans who were convinced that they were watching their team make a scudetto statement when Denzel Dumfries rolled home what looked like Inter’s decisive fourth goal in the 53rd minute.
Photo: Reuters
“Today I was really happy to score my first goal and second goal, also against a big team like Inter. I hope to continue like this,” Yildiz told DAZN, adding that he has faith in Juve’s title chances. “We hope always, but the season is still long, we want to give our best and I hope at the end that it’s going to be good.”
Although both teams lost ground on Napoli, it would be champions Inter, in second, who would most feel the sting of the draw after missing a clutch of chances following Dumfries’ strike.
Inter were two ahead thanks to a beautiful strike from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and two Piotr Zielinski penalties, all in the first half, before Dumfries’ low finish.
Photo: AP
They went close to sealing the points through Federico Dimarco, Nicolo Barella and Lautaro Martinez, but got caught twice on the break by Yildiz, whose brace was also his first goals of the season.
“We deserved to score seven or eight goals against a team which had conceded one in eight games,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “You can’t concede four goals from four shots on target... It’ll serve as a lesson for us.”
Juve stay third, a further point off the title pace after showing huge fight to bounce back and take a precious draw from their fierce rivals.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Thiago Motta’s side, missing a host of first-choice players, had already fought back from going behind to Zielinski’s first spot-kick through tap-ins from Dusan Vlahovic and Timothy Weah.
Former Inter midfielder Motta, who won the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League with the Nerazzurri, got his substitutions right, while Yann Bisseck’s poor performance in place of Benjamin Pavard aided Juve’s stunning comeback.
“We had the right attitude and spirit, and at the end we even tried to get the win,” Motta said. “We need to look at why at times we play brilliantly and in other moments we seem to be dominated by opponents.”
Crisis club AS Roma slumped to a humiliating 5-1 defeat at ACF Fiorentina which left Ivan Juric at risk of the sack barely a month after he replaced Daniele de Rossi in the capital club’s dugout.
Roma are 11th on just 10 points after a horrendous night in Florence in which nothing went right, going two down to strikes from Moise Kean and Lucas Beltran within 17 minutes, and never recovering from that early blow.
The away side were briefly in the game when Manu Kone netted in the 39th minute, but Kean bagged his second of the night moments later.
A miserable evening was completed by Roma youth product Edoardo Bove adding the fourth and Mats Hummels nodding into his own net just four minutes after making his debut for the club from the bench following Mario Hermoso’s sending off.
Roma’s dismal season has only been made worse by rivals SS Lazio’s great form, their latest win a 3-0 thumping of injury-ravaged Genoa.
Lazio are level on 16 points with fourth-placed Fiorentina, Atalanta BC and Udinese, who are all one point behind Juve, after Tijjani Noslin’s jinking run and low finish in the 21st minute was followed up by late strikes from Pedro and Matias Vecino.
Genoa meanwhile are third from bottom after a seven-match winless run in which they have lost five times. They were set to sign Mario Balotelli yesterday in an attempt to solve an injury crisis that has crippled their attack.
Elsewhere, Parma drew 1-1 with Empoli and AC Monza drew 2-2 with Venezia.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS