The story appears on

Page B8

January 11, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Soccer

Udinese holds Milan but Napoli drubs Juve

AC Milan drew 4-4 with Udinese in an epic game on Sunday but its Serie A lead was cut to four points after Edinson Cavani's hat-trick in Napoli's 3-0 win over Juventus added a new twist at the midway point of the season.

Third-placed Lazio lost 1-2 to Lecce and champion Inter Milan, now 11 points adrift of Milan, won 2-1 at Catania thanks to Esteban Cambiasso's double to boost its outside hopes of a sixth successive scudetto given it has two games in hand.

Visitors Udinese took the lead on 35 minutes when Gokhan Inler hit the post and Antonio Di Natale, Serie A's joint top scorer with Cavani, netted the rebound.

Milan hit back just before the break when Zlatan Ibrahimovic crossed for the returning Alexandre Pato to tap in. Udinese forward Alexis Sanchez, linked in the media with Inter, headed in at the near post after halftime and Di Natale scored again before an own goal by Mehdi Benatia and Pato's second from Antonio Cassano's assist put the hosts level.

German Denis thought he had won it for Udinese a minute from time but Ibrahimovic struck an injury-time equalizer after another sublime pass from new signing Cassano. Napoli, beaten at Inter on Thursday, surged to second after Uruguay striker Cavani nodded in crosses from both flanks in the first half and netted a diving header after the break.

Juventus thought it had equalized at 1-0 in Naples when debutant Luca Toni, who signed from Genoa after Fabio Quagliarella's injury, forced the ball home but he was harshly penalized for a foul on goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis. A second straight loss means fifth-placed Juventus, which again omitted Alessandro Del Piero at kickoff, lies nine behind Milan.





 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend