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WORLD SPORT
Gulf Daily News Monday, 22nd December 2014
Email: [email protected]
Juve eye record Italian Super Cup title
ROME: Juventus will be aiming for a record seventh Italian Super Cup title when they face Napoli at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha
today looking for their third straight triumph.
The two teams have met twice in the annual showdown between the Italian champions and the domestic
cup winners with one victory apiece and Napoli will be
out to avenge their defeat.
Although the Naples club demolished Juve 5-1 in
their only Super Cup victory in 1990 when Diego Maradona was the team’s inspiration, Juve won a controversial game 4-2 in 2012 in China.
Antonio Conte’s side got a fortunate 74th minute
penalty in Beijing when trailing 2-1 before Napoli had
two players sent off late in the game and then scored an
own goal in extra time.
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentis was so appalled by the refereeing that he did not allow his club
to take part in the trophy ceremony and they will be
determined to avenge that loss.
Hurt
“We know how to hurt them,” Napoli captain Marek
Hamsik told reporters on Sunday the day after a 0-0
draw at Roma in Serie A.
“If we play with the same intensity we displayed
against Roma we have a good chance to beat them. We
usually don’t fail in these kind of matches.”
Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 to win their fifth Coppa
Italia last season and earn a place in the annual Super
Cup clash with the winners of the scudetto who are
having a successful season.
Serie A leaders Juve have already booked a last 16
spot in the Champions League and will face Borussia
Dortmund over two legs in February and are now targeting another trophy.
“This is our third goal of the season, from a chronological standpoint,” Conte’s successor as Juve manager
Massimiliano Allegri told a news conference on Sunday. “The first one was to maintain first place in the
(Serie A) table and the second was to qualify for the
knockout stage in the Champions League.”
Udinese held
by Sampdoria
MILAN: Italy striker Mano-
lo Gabbiadini confirmed he
could quit Sampdoria in the
January transfer window after heading a late equaliser to secure
a share of the spoils in a 2-2 home
draw with Udinese yesterday.
Gabbiadini has been linked with a
move to Napoli and the highly-rated
23-year-old told Sky Sport after the
game: “I don’t know if this will be my
last goal in a Sampdoria shirt, I always
honour the shirt that I’m wearing.”
It was Sampdoria’s ninth draw of the
campaign but Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men
were left lamenting a missed chance to
leapfrog Napoli into provisional third
place ahead of Lazio’s visit to Inter Milan in Sunday’s late game.
Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang gave
the hosts a great start with a 15th minute
opener at the Luigi Ferraris stadium, firing into the empty net after a blunder by
visiting ‘keeper Orestis Karnezis.
But Udinese took a 2-1 half-time lead
following quick-fire goals from Alexandre Geijo and Danilo in the space of
three minutes.
Gabbiadini, who secured a share of
the points for Samp in a 1-1 draw away
n Sampdoria’s
Gabbiadini
celebrates
after scoring
against
Udinese
to Juventus last week, rescued the hosts
again when he headed Lorenzo Di Silvestri’s cross past Karnezis on the hour.
ENGLISH LEAGUE
ITALIAN LEAGUE
Premiership
Newcastle
0
Verona
Sunderland
1
(Johnson 90)
Liverpool
2
Arsenal
2
(Coutinho 45, Skrtel 90+7) (Debuchy 45+2, Giroud 64)
P W D
L
F
Chelsea
16 12
3
1 36
Man City
17 12
3
2 36
Man United
17
9
5
3 30
West Ham
17
9
4
4 29
Southampton
17
9
2
6 28
Arsenal
17
7
6
4 30
Tottenham
17
8
3
6 22
Swansea
17
7
4
6 22
Newcastle
17
6
5
6 18
Liverpool
17
6
4
7 21
Everton
17
5
6
6 27
Aston Villa
17
5
5
7 11
Stoke
16
5
4
7 18
Sunderland
17
3 10
4 15
West Brom
17
4
5
8 17
QPR
17
5
2 10 20
Crystal Palace
17
3
6
8 19
Burnley
17
3
6
8 12
Hull
17
2
7
8 15
Leicester
17
2
4 11 15
Playing today:
Stoke v Chelsea
(Starting at 11pm, Bahrain time)
Sampdoria are 12 points behind Juventus, who will face Napoli in the Italian Super Cup final in Doha on Monday
A Pts
13 39
14 39
18 32
19 31
13 29
21 27
23 27
19 25
23 23
24 22
27 21
21 20
21 19
24 19
23 17
32 17
27 15
26 15
24 13
29 10
Atalanta
0
Chievo
(Paloschi 81)
3
Palermo
(Denis 40-pen, 76, Moralez 55) (Rigoni 6, Vazquez 1,
45+1)
Fiorentina
Sampdoria
1
Empoli
(Vargas 44) (Tonelli 57)
2
Udinese
(Obiang 15, Gabbiadini 60) (Geijo 31, Danilo 34)
Torino
2
Genoa
with a chance for a double Christmas
celebration after the latest slip-up by title challengers.
Roma had closed the gap on leaders
Juventus to a point last week but had to
settle for a scoreless draw at home to
Milan on Saturday which left them three
points adrift in second.
Lazio can finish the year in third place
if they beat Inter later at the San Siro.
Elsewhere yesterday, Chievo and Torino were the only two teams celebrating
ending the year with a win.
Alberto Paloschi struck late to secure
the points as Chievo beat Verona 1-0 in
the city derby to give them some breathing space in the battle for relegation.
Torino had defender Kamel Glik to
thank for a brace of goals in a precious
2-1 home win over Genoa which secured
just their fourth win of the campaign.
Argentinian striker German Denis,
meanwhile, struck a brace including a
late leveller as Atalanta fought back to
claim a point from a 3-3 draw with visitors Palermo.
Fiorentina were sent on their way towards a seventh win of the campaign
after Juan Manuel Vargas struck on the
stroke of half-time.
3
Villarreal
3
Deportivo
1
Getafe
1
(Cordoba Copete 40) (Velazquez 78))
1
2
1
(Glik 52, 63) (Iago 42)
P W D
L
F
A Pts
Juventus
16 12 3
1 34
7 39
Roma
16 11 3
2 28 11 36
Napoli
16
7 6
3 28 20 27
Sampdoria
16
6 9
1 22 14 27
Lazio
15
8 2
5 26 17 26
Genoa
16
7 5
4 21 15 26
AC Milan
16
6 7
3 25 18 25
Fiorentina
16
6 6
4 21 13 24
Udinese
16
6 4
6 20 22 22
Palermo
16
5 7
4 22 26 22
Inter Milan
15
5 5
5 23 21 20
Sassuolo
16
4 8
4 17 21 20
Empoli
16
3 8
5 17 22 17
Torino
16
4 5
7 12 18 17
Verona
16
4 5
7 18 27 17
Chievo
16
4 4
8 12 19 16
Atalanta
16
3 6
7 11 21 15
Cagliari
16
2 6
8 21 29 12
Cesena
16
1 6
9 13 30
9
Parma
16
2 1 13 16 36
6
Note: Parma deducted one point for failing to pay
player salaries.
Elche
1
Malaga
P
15
16
15
16
16
15
16
16
16
16
15
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
W
13
12
10
9
9
9
9
5
5
5
5
4
5
3
3
3
3
2
1
2
D
0
2
2
4
3
3
3
5
5
5
4
5
2
6
6
4
4
7
8
4
L
2
2
3
3
4
3
4
6
6
6
6
7
9
7
7
9
9
7
7
10
Vitesse
Excelsior
NAC Breda
FC Twente
3
0
0
3
F
55
41
27
29
27
25
20
17
19
20
13
12
17
17
12
13
13
10
11
13
A Pts
13 39
7
38
13 32
13 31
14 30
17 30
15 30
18 20
22 20
24 20
16 19
20 17
31 17
22 15
30 15
24 13
27 13
26 13
27 11
32 10
Heracles Almelo
Ajax
Feyenoord
Willem
0
2
1
2
French League
2
(Lomban 45+1) (Camacho 49, Alberto 77)
Real Madrid
Barcelona
Atletico Madrid
Valencia
Villarreal
Sevilla
Malaga
Celta Vigo
Eibar
Espanyol
Athletic Club
Getafe
Rayo Vallecano
Real Sociedad
Levante
Almeria
Deportivo
Granada
Cordoba
Elche
Dutch League
0
(Jonathan 10, Vietto 68, 73)
Granada
England’s
failed bid to host the
2018 World Cup “was
by far the strongest
contender”, Fifa official Harold
Mayne-Nicholls was quoted as
saying yesterday.
“How could England have only
got two votes? It was a big surprise,” Mayne-Nicholls was quoted as saying in The Sunday Times.
The 53-year-old, a former
Chilean football federation
president, was chairman of a
Fifa group tasked with assessing the strength and feasibility
of the various bids for the 2018
and 2022 World Cup finals.
Having visited all 11 countries bidding, Mayne-Nicholls
concluded that England had the
best infrastructure and public
involvement, crucial facets of
any successful bid.
The bid, however, received
just two votes from a possible 22
with Russia winning the right to
host the 2018 tournament. Qatar
secured the 2022 Cup.
“England were on the top.
They had the best concept, the
best infrastructure and the people were very much involved,”
said Mayne-Nicholls.
“I was there and I saw the
faces of Prince William and
(David) Beckham, and they
were shocked. It’s like when
you are a first division team and
you play a third division team
and you lose by five goals.”
Mayne-Nicholls has previously raised concerns about Qatar,
whose bid was the only one labelled as high risk by the evaluation committee due to the searing heat. He again questioned
the logistical issues raised by
hosting the tournament in one
city and said the transport and
infrastructure would not be able
to cope with the deluge of fans
flocking to the tournament.
“It is a real possibility that
lots of people cannot get to the
games,” Mayne-Nicholls.
On Friday, Fifa president
Sepp Blatter announced the
world body would publish, “in
an appropriate form”, a 430page report compiled by former
ethics investigator Michael Garcia which explored claims of
bribery in the bidding process.
LONDON:
OTHER LEAGUES
SPANISH LEAGUE
1
England’s
failed bid
‘surprising’
Marseille
Saint-Etienne
2
3
Lille
Evian
1
0
German League
Hertha Berlin
Freiburg
0
2
Hoffenheim
Hannover
5
2
Greek League
Asteras Tripolis
Ergotelis
Panionios
2
1
2
Xanthi
PAS Giannina
Atromitos Athinon
1
0
2
Scottish Premier League
Dundee United
P
Celtic
17
Dundee United 17
Aberdeen
17
Hamilton
17
Inverness
17
St Johnstone
17
Dundee
17
Kilmarnock
17
Partick Thistle 17
Motherwell
17
Ross County
17
St Mirren
17
2
W
12
11
11
10
10
8
5
6
5
4
2
2
Celtic
D
L
2
3
1
5
1
5
3
4
2
5
2
7
6
6
3
8
5
7
2
11
3
12
2
13
F
34
30
26
30
24
15
22
17
23
12
17
11
1
A Pts
12 38
20 34
17 34
18 33
18 32
17 26
22 21
22 21
20 20
27 14
37
9
31
8
Turkish League
Balikesirspor
Bursaspor
5
3
Kasimpasa
Trabzonspor
3
3