Sports

Lazio, Inter keep CL push alive

April 22, 2018
Lazio's defender Stefan de Vrij (L) celebrates with midfielder Felipe Anderson after scoring a goal during the Italian Serie A football match against Sampdoria at Rome's Olympic Stadium Sunday. — AFP
Lazio's defender Stefan de Vrij (L) celebrates with midfielder Felipe Anderson after scoring a goal during the Italian Serie A football match against Sampdoria at Rome's Olympic Stadium Sunday. — AFP

TURIN — Lazio and Inter Milan kept their push for Champions League football alive Sunday with champions Juventus and Napoli set to meet in a top of the table clash in Turin.

Ciro Immobile scored a brace as Lazio crushed Sampdoria 4-0 to return joint third with Roma which warmed up for next week's Champions League semifinal against Liverpool with a 3-0 win at SPAL Saturday.

Roma and Lazio both have 67 points from 34 games with Roma ahead on head-to-head clashes.

Inter Milan is just outside the Champions League places in fifth one point behind after a hard fought 2-1 win over Chievo.

Lazio dominated Sampdoria in its Stadio Olimpico with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic breaking through after 32 minutes and a Stefan de Vrij's diving header giving the host a second just before the break.

Immobile tapped in a Milinkovic-Savic assist five minutes from the end, quickly adding a second to consolidate his position as leading Serie A scorer with 29 goals this season.

After being pegged back in the first half by 16th-placed Chievo, Inter's top scorer Mauro Icardi broke through on 50 minutes — for his 26th Serie A goal this season second behind Immobile — with Ivan Perisic adding a second six minutes later.

Mariusz Stepinski pulled a goal back for Chievo who are just two points above the drop zone.

The battle for Europe could go down to the wire with Lazio hosting Inter in their final game of the season.

Atalanta moved sixth into the Europa League places with a 2-1 win over Torino at the expense of AC Milan who dropped to seventh after a 1-0 defeat at home to bottom club Benevento Saturday.

Benevento's relegation from Serie A was confirmed after just one year in Italy's top flight and less than 24 hours after an impressive 1-0 win at AC Milan.

Crotone's 2-1 victory away to Udinese Sunday condemned Benevento to an immediate return to the second division after it was left 14 points from safety with just four matches to play.

The club based some 60 kilometers to the east of Naples began the season in disastrous fashion, losing 14 consecutive matches to break the record for the worst start to a campaign in any of Europe's top five leagues.

The arrivals of Bacary Sagna, Sandro and giant Malian striker Cheick Diabate — who has scored seven goals in eight games — in the winter transfer window helped Benevento improve but couldn't spare them from the inevitable drop. — AFP


April 22, 2018
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