quarta-feira, 18 de abril de 2018

European roundup: Napoli win cuts Juve’s Serie A lead to four points



Two sent off in first 15 minutes in Lazio’s 4-3 win at Fiorentina 
 Niko Kovac’s Eintracht Frankfurt reach German Cup final


Napoli twice came from behind to beat Udinese 4-2 and cut Juventus’s lead at the top of Serie A to four points after the Turin side were held 1-1 at relegation-threatened Crotone.
Raul Albiol, Arkadiusz Milik and Lorenzo Tonelli scored in the last half-hour to keep Napoli in the title race before Sunday’s showdown with Juventus.
Fiorentina forward Jordan Veretout scored a hat-trick but was on the losing side in a 4-3 home defeat by Lazio in which two players were sent off in the first 15 minutes, visiting coach Simone Inzaghi was dismissed and a penalty was revoked by VAR.

Alex Sandro gave Juve an early lead but Simy Nwankwo equalised midway through the second half for Crotone, the club from Calabria in southern Italy.
Juventus lead with 85 points, followed by Napoli on 81 with Roma, who beat Genoa 2-1, and Lazio on 64 in the other two Champions League places.
In the German Cup semi-finals, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic scored a 75th-minute winner to stun Schalke and earn his manager, Niko Kovac, a date with Bayern Munich, the club he will coach from next season.
Eintracht, losing finalists last year, will get their chance for silverware again when they take on overwhelming favourites Bayern, 6-2 winners against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, in Berlin on 19 May.
The 20-year-old Jovic poked in from a corner against the run of play to set up an extraordinary game for Kovac. The Croat this week signed a three-year contract at Bayern, leaving Frankfurt angry with the Bundesliga champions over the poaching of their coach, who has turned them from relegation candidates into European hopefuls this season.
The game at Schalke lacked the fireworks of Bayern’s semi-final and needed more than an hour to catch light with the hosts having the better chances.
Eintracht were left with 10 men in the 81st minute when their substitute Gelson Ferdandes, who had only been on the pitch for 33 seconds, was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Leon Goretzka.
Schalke tried desperately to find an equaliser and had the ball in the net deep into stoppage time only for the referee to rule it out for handball.
In Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo’s superb late backheel earned Real Madrid a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabéu.
Ronaldo flicked Luka Modric’s low drive into the back of the net in the 87th minute with a deft touch, his 24th league goal of the season and one that cancelled out a first-half chipped goal from Inaki Williams for the visitors.
Real were set for defeat until Ronaldo, who also hit the bar with a header early on, struck. Real are third in La Liga on 68 points, three behind city rivals Atlético, who play Real Sociedad on Thursday. Barcelona lead the way on 83 points, 12 clear of Diego Simeone’s men.

Player Ratings: Napoli 4-2 Udinese


Napoli played a six-goal thriller to push past Udinese, but who stood out for good and bad reasons in the Football Italia ratings?
Words: Ciro Di Brita - @Ciruzzo36
Pepe Reina – 6
Left sprawling on the ground when the cross came in for Jakub Jankto to tap in from close range.  Expertly tipped the Czech Republic man’s header over the bar in the first half, but couldn’t get near Svante Ingelsson’s goal that made it 2-1 to Udinese.
Elseid Hysaj – 5
Was caught sleeping on the back post for Udinese’s opener and along with Reina and Raul Albiol they never really coped with any of Udinese’s crosses that came into the box.
Raul Albiol – 6.5
At fault for Jankto’s goal, was too hesitant in his positioning and ended up being stuck in no man’s land as the ball went past him and Reina. Headed in to equalise and bring his side back into the game at 2-2.
Lorenzo Tonelli –  7
Centre-back Tonelli came in to make just his third start of the season and his sixth since moving to Napoli in 2016 and defended stoutly. Isn’t as comfortable on the ball as Kalidou Koulibaly or Albiol, but is arguably better man to man. Scored the fourth with a bullet of header from an out swinging Jose Callejon corner.
Mario Rui – 6
Had a tough night and was outnumbered in defence a few times. Had a good old battle with Francesco Zampano up and down the left flank.
Piotr Zielinski - 6.5
Looked sharp early in the game against his old side when he was able to break forward, had some nice link up play with his international teammate Arkadiusz Milik.
Amadou Diawara –  6.5
He isn’t a regista and cannot dictate the pace of the game, but has other qualities that Maurizio Sarri needs to get the best of.
Marek Hamsik – 5
Tested Albano Bizzarri with a piledriver early in the game, then disappeared for the rest of the first half. Looked tired in the second and didn’t have the legs to intercept the cross that led to Udinese’s second goal. Replaced by Mertens just before the hour mark.
Jose Callejon – 5
Ran offside, passed the ball backwards. In other words, the usual game from the Spaniard.It was his shot that was pushed out by Albano Bizzarri for Milik to finish and his two corners were assists for Albiol and Tonelli.

Arkadiusz Milik – 7
The Polish international made his first start since suffering his second serious knee injury and showed some silky touches on the ball. Tapped in from point blank range when Callejon’s shot was parried into his path.
Lorenzo Insigne – 7
Scored a perfectly timed goal just before half time, when he spun in around Bram Nuytinck and placed his shot into the corner of the net.
Substitutes:
Dries Mertens – 5
Came on for what was the spectre of Hamsik and elected to pass twice instead of taking the responsibility of shooting himself when in good positions.
Allan – 6
Replaced Milik for the last 20 minutes and got stuck in straight away.
Marko Rog – 6
Came on for Callejon for the last 10 and added some steel for the nervy last few minutes of the game.

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