Category: Sassuolo

European roundup: Osimhen hits hat-trick for flying Napoli, Bayern score six | European club football


Victor Osimhen struck a hat-trick as Napoli extended their unbeaten Serie A run to 16 matches with a 4-0 thrashing of Sassuolo.

Osimhen put Napoli ahead in the fourth minute after latching on to a pass from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and flicking it into the net. The 23-year-old Nigerian made it 2-0 in the 19th minute when he connected to another Kvaratskhelia pass and fired the ball behind the Sassuolo keeper, Andrea Consigli. Kvaratskhelia continued the rout in the 36th minute before Osimhen completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute by intercepting a poor Sassuolo pass and lobbing the ball over Consigli.

Napoli have a six-point lead in Serie A with 32 points from 12 games, six points ahead of second-placed Milan, who face Torino on Sunday. Sassuolo are ninth with 15 points.

A late goal by the half-time substitute Nicolò Fagioli earned Juventus a 1-0 victory at Lecce as Massimiliano Allegri’s side took their third consecutive win in Serie A. Juve moved up two places to sixth on 22 points, one ahead of both Udinese, who travel to bottom side Cremonese on Sunday, and Internazionale before they host Sampdoria later on Saturday.

Juventus’s Nicolò Fagioli celebrates his goal against Leece with his teammate Matías Soulé.
Juventus’s Nicolò Fagioli celebrates his goal against Leece with his teammate Matías Soulé. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters

After a dull first half with no threat to either goal, the Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot came close to nodding in a corner from Filip Kostic just before half-time but the Lecce goalkeeper, Wladimiro Falcone, dived full-stretch to deny him.

Three minutes into the second half Falcone kept out a header by the defender Federico Gatti from Juan Cuadrado’s free kick. Allegri’s side could have taken the lead in the 53rd minute but a back-heel from close range by the striker Arkadiusz Milik was saved by Falcone. The Poland forward had another chance in the 64th minute when he struck from the edge of the box but was again denied by the in-form Falcone.

The 21-year-old Fagioli secured the win with his first Serie A goal after 73 minutes when his curled shot from the edge of the box bounced in off a post after an assist by his fellow substitute Samuel Iling-Junior, who had just come on.

Lecce came close to levelling just before the final whistle but the midfielder Morten Hjulmand struck a post.

Bayern Munich demolished visitors Mainz 6-2, with Sadio Mané scoring once and setting up two more goals, to take over the lead in the Bundesliga. The Senegal international, who scored in Bayern’s 3-0 midweek win at Barcelona in the Champions League, also missed a penalty.

Sadio Mané fires home Bayern Munich’s third goal against Mainz.
Sadio Mané fires home Bayern Munich’s third goal against Mainz. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Leon Goretzka were also on target for Bayern along with the substitute Mathys Tel and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Mainz briefly cut the deficit twice, with goals from Silvan Widmer and Marcus Ingvartsen, after also missing a penalty.

The champions are now two points clear at the top of the table with 25 points. Union Berlin, in second place on 23, are in action against Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday. Mainz drop to eighth on 18.

The England international Jude Bellingham rifled in his third league goal of the season to give Borussia Dortmund a 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt that lifted them into third.

Bellingham fired Dortmund back in front in the 52nd minute with a low shot but his side had the goalkeeper Gregor Kobel to thank for protecting their lead with a string of superb saves in the second half.

Dortmund took a 21st-minute lead through Julian Brandt but Frankfurt levelled five minutes later when Daichi Kamada rifled in from 18 metres for his seventh goal of the campaign. After Bellingham’s goal Frankfurt pushed forward and forced Kobel to pull off save after save, twice denying Randal Kolo Muani and Jesper Lindstrom and coming to the rescue several more times.

Lionel Messi grabbed a goal and an assist to inspire Paris Saint-Germain to a 4-3 comeback victory over Troyes as they restored their lead at the top of Ligue 1 to five points. Mama Baldé gave Troyes the lead twice before Messi assumed control to score his seventh league of the season and take his tally of assists to 10 – a league high.

Troyes needed just three minutes to stun the crowd at the Parc des Princes as Abdu Conté raced down the touchline to send a cross into the box where Rony Lopes set up a chance for Baldé to volley in.

In the 24th minute Neymar scooped a ball into the box for Carlos Soler, who rounded the keeper to score, but Baldé restored Troyes’ lead seven minutes into the second half after firing low past the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Messi then stole the show, first by equalising from long range with a sizzling strike before turning provider minutes later with an incisive ball for Neymar to score as PSG went ahead for the first time. Gallon then brought Soler down in the box and Kylian Mbappé converted the penalty.

Troyes pulled one back through an Ante Palaversa header but PSG held on. The visitors remain in 11th place with 13 points.

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European roundup: Tomori on target to help Milan defeat struggling Juventus | European club football


Milan secured a 2-0 win over rivals Juventus with goals from defender Fikayo Tomori and midfielder Brahim Díaz in a spirited Serie A clash at the San Siro.

The defending champions provisionally moved up two places to third in the standings on 20 points, level with leaders Napoli and second-placed Atalanta who both have a game in hand.

Juventus, who appeared to have turned a corner after beating Bologna 3-0 at home last weekend, following that up with a 3-1 victory against Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League in midweek, remain eighth on 13 points.

Milan made it 1-0 just before the break through Tomori who followed up a shot by Olivier Giroud and rifled the ball into the roof of the net. Díaz doubled Milan’s lead in the 54th minute when he took advantage of Dusan Vlahovic’s mistake and raced towards Juve’s goal, finishing off a solo effort with a brilliant strike.

Edin Dzeko’s 100th and 101st Serie A goals gave injury-ridden Internazionale a 2-1 victory at Sassuolo. The 36-year-old became the third-oldest player to reach the milestone behind Goran Pandev and Sergio Pellissier.

In Spain, Ángel Correa scored twice as Atlético Madrid won 2-1 against Girona to move up to fourth in La Liga. Girona made it difficult for the home side who relied on an inspired performance from Jan Oblak and got lucky when two second-half strikes from the visitors hit the post.

Both Correa’s goals were scored in the early minutes of each half. The Argentina international stroked in a close-range, first-time shot from an Antoine Griezmann cross to open the scoring after five minutes. Three minutes after the break, Correa intercepted a poor pass from goalkeeper Juan Carlos inside the box and buried the ball in the open goal.

Ángel Correa watches his shot go past Juan Carlos for Atlético Madrid’s second goal
Ángel Correa watches his shot go past Juan Carlos for Atlético Madrid’s second goal. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

Girona reduced the deficit in the 65th minute when Rodrigo Riquelme’s long-range shot deflected off defender José Maria Gimenez, which took it beyond Jan Oblak.

Aleix García smashed a thundering strike off the post in the 77th minute and had a similar strike from the same spot that Oblak acrobatically tipped away. From the resulting corner, Santiago Bueno jumped high to deliver a towering header that smashed against Oblak’s left post. That was as close as Girona came to an equaliser.

Atlético’s win lifted them to 16 points, a point behind third-placed Athletic Bilbao who drew 1-1 at Sevilla, Mikel Vesga equalising for the visitors after Óliver Torres’s early goal. Atlético are three points behind the leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid, who have a game in hand.

In the main game in Germany, Borussia Dortmund scraped a 2-2 draw at home to Bayern Munich. Earlier, Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby scored once and set up two for Jeremie Frimpong in a 4-0 demolition of visiting Schalke to give Xabi Alonso a winning start as a coach in the Bundesliga.

Diaby thundered in a shot from outside the area in the 38th minute before setting up Frimpong to drill in from a tight angle three minutes later.
The pair combined again eight minutes after the restart with Diaby again the provider and Dutch midfielder Frimpong slotting in from close range. Paulinho completed the rout with a well-timed run in the 90th minute.

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