MILAN: Teenage Argentine Mauro Icardi scored twice as Serie A leaders Juventus slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home to lowly Sampdoria who came from behind to win despite playing for an hour with 10-men yesterday.
Juve had won their last four Serie A games while Sampdoria had lost 10 of their last 13 and only one outcome looked possible after Sebastian Giovinco put the hosts ahead with a 24th-minute penalty and Sampdoria had Gaetano Berardi dismissed.
Instead, Icardi netted twice in the second half as Sampdoria hit back out of the blue.
There was a further shock as third-placed Fiorentina went down to their first home defeat of the season, losing 2-0 to relegation-threatened Pescara, and fourth-placed Inter Milan were beaten 3-0 at Udinese as they continued their slump.
Goalkeeper Mattia Perin was the hero for Pescara, saving everything Fiorentina could throw at him before Jonathas and Mervain Celik snatched the points by scoring from the visitors’ only two real chances.
Inter dominated the first hour at Udinese and missed a flurry of chances including one incredible effort from Brazilian Jonathan who contrived to fire wide from six meters in the 54th minute with the goal at his mercy.
They paid the price when 35-year-old striker Antonio Di Natale scored twice and Colombian Luis Muriel was also on target in the closing half hour.
Inter’s unhappy afternoon was complete when defender Juan Jesus sent off for a second bookable offense.
Juventus, with 44 points from 19 games, still reached the halfway mark in the championship with a five-point lead over Lazio, who beat Cagliari 2-1 on Saturday. Fiorentina and Inter have 35 points.
In other matches, two goals by Marco Boriello gave Genoa a 2-0 win over Bologna which lifted them out of the relegation zone while Bojan Krkic and Giampaolo Pazzini scored to give seventh-placed AC Milan a 2-1 win at home to bottom club Siena.
Chievo Verona beat Atalanta 1-0 in a mid-table clash and a stoppage-time goal from Amauri gave Parma a 2-1 win over Palermo which left the Sicilians one place off the bottom with 15 points, one below Cagliari and two adrift of 17th-placed Genoa.
Igor Budan had put Palermo level in the 85th minute, wiping out Ishak Belfodil’s opening goal.
Juventus had won 14 of their first 18 games and took the lead when Giovinco converted a penalty awarded after Claudio Marchisio was fouled in the 24th minute.
Seven minutes later, Berardi was given a second yellow card as Sampdoria’s problems multiplied.
But Sampdoria levelled seven minutes after the re-start when Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon misjudged Icardi’s awkwardly bouncing shot.
In the 68th minute, the 19-year-old got to the byline and then fired into the roof of the net from an almost impossible angle.
Fiorentina should have been several goals clear at halftime against Pescara but Perin brilliantly kept the hosts at bay with saves from Alberto Aquilani, twice, and Borja Valero.
Jonathas then headed the visitors in front after 57 minutes and, despite further Fiorentina pressure, Celik added another in stoppage time when he won the ball off Sebastian Rocaglia and slid his finish under goalkeeper Neto.
Juventus stunned at home by 10-man Sampdoria
Juventus stunned at home by 10-man Sampdoria
History-chasing Djokovic and Alcaraz to meet in Australian Open final after epic semifinal wins
- Carlos Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam
- Novak Djokovic is aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic finally beat one of the two men who have been blocking his path to an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles title when he edged Jannik Sinner in five sets Friday to reach the Australian Open final.
To get that coveted No. 25, he’ll next have to beat the other: top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.
They’re both chasing history in Sunday’s championship decider, with the 22-year-old Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
The top-ranked Alcaraz also had to come through a grueling five-setter. He fended off No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in a match that started in the warmth of the afternoon Friday and, 5 hours and 27 minutes later, became the longest semifinal ever at the Australian Open.
That pushed the start of Djokovic’s match against Sinner back a couple of hours, and the 38-year-old Djokovic finally finished off a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win just after 1:30 a.m.
“It feels surreal,” Djokovic said of his 4-hour, 9-minute triumph. “Honestly, it feels like winning already tonight. I know I have to come back … and fight the No. 1 of the world. I just hope that I’ll have enough gas to stay toe-to-toe with him.
“That’s my desire. Let the God decide the winner.”
Djokovic was at the peak of his defensive powers, fending off 16 of the 18 breakpoints he faced against the two-time defending Australian Open champion. It ended a run of five losses to Sinner, and a run of four semifinal exits for Djokovic at the majors.
“Had many chances, couldn’t use them, and that’s the outcome,” Sinner said. “Yeah, it hurts, for sure.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have split the last eight major titles between them since Djokovic won his last title at the 2023 US Open.
Nobody knows how to win more at Melbourne Park than Djokovic. He has won all 10 times he’s contested the Australian Open final.
He said he saw Alcaraz after the first of the semifinals was over and he congratulated him on reaching his first final at Melbourne Park.
“He said sorry to delay,” Djokovic later explained. “I told him ‘I’m an old man, I need to go earlier to sleep!”
Djokovic, aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title, was kept up late.
“I’m looking forward to meeting him on Sunday,” he said.
Final 4
With the top four seeds reaching the Australian Open men’s semifinals for just the fifth time, Day 13 was destined to produce some drama. The season-opening major had been a relatively slow burn, until the back-to-back five-setters lasting a combined 9 hours and 36 minutes.
Alcaraz and Zverev, the 2025 runner-up, surpassed the 2009 classic between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco as the longest ever Australian Open semifinal.
Medical timeout
Alcaraz was as close as two points from victory in the third set but was hampered by pain in his upper right leg and his medical timeout became contentious.
He said initially it didn’t feel like cramping because the pain seemed to be just in one muscle, the right adductor, and he needed an assessment.
He navigated the third and fourth sets and was behind in the fifth after dropping serve in the first game. He kept up the pressure but didn’t break back until Zverev was serving for the match. He then won the last four games.
“I think physically we just pushed each other to the limit today. We pushed our bodies to the limit,” Alcaraz said. “Just really, really happy to get the win, that I came back. I just rank this one in the top position of one of the best matches that I have ever won.”
Believe
Asked how he was able to recover despite being so close to defeat, Alcaraz admitted he was struggling but said kept “believing, believing, all the time.”
“I’ve been in these situations, I’ve been in these kinds of matches before, so I knew what I had to do,” he said. “I had to put my heart into the match. I think I did it. I fought until the last ball.”
Zverev was demonstrably upset about the time out out in the third set, taking it up with a tournament supervisor, when his rival was given the three-minute break for treatment and a massage on the leg.
After the match, he maintained that he didn’t think it was right, but he didn’t think it should overshadow the match.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia,” he said “It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”
