MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015 SPORTS Mihajlovic furious as Bacca, Adriano score in Milan win MILAN: Furious AC Milan coach Sinisa ing goalkeeper Lucasz Skorupski with a fine Mihajlovic hit out at his side despite new angled strike. recruits Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano hitting Empoli, however, were anything but a maiden Serie A goals in a 2-1 victory over pushover. The visitors had scored against Milan Empoli on Saturday. in their last five outings and were quickly back Milan, who like city rivals Inter failed to quali- on level terms when former Milan forward fy for Europe this season, started the new cam- Riccardo Saponara finished off a quick one-two paign with a 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina last week. with Massimo Maccarone to beat Diego Lopez in But after their first league win of the season, the 20th minute. Milan walked off at half-time to Mihajlovic slammed his side’s attitude. a chorus of whistles and jeers at their San Siro Mihajlovic, who has taken over the fallen Serie A home ground. After the restart, the first chances giants after a great season with Sampdoria, told fell to Empoli, with midfielder Daniele Croce and Sky Sport: “The only thing positive about striker Manuel Puccierelli, the latter on 63 min- tonight was the rest, but nothing else. utes, both testing Lopez in the Milan net. “We lacked courage, personality and charac- The visitors, however, paid the price for giv- ter. Not a lot has changed since last year, except ing away an avoidable corner shortly afterwards for the two new lads who both scored a goal. with Adriano rising well to fire a powerful head- “We really need to work on our mental er into the net after Skorupski had misjudged approach, because in midweek we’d worked a his run-out. Earlier, Antonio Floro Flores came off lot on how to get the ball forward to the strikers. the bench and hit a late winner as Sassuolo “The strikers were doing everything right, but went provisionally top with a 1-0 win at they just weren’t being given the service. We Bologna. Floro Flores hit his first goal of the new can’t go on like that.” Milan caused a minor campaign last week in a precious 2-1 home win shock in midweek after signing former striker over Napoli, but this time the Italian striker Mario Balotelli from Liverpool on loan for the required fortune to go his way. season as they look to qualify for Europe next After replacing Matteo Politano on the hour year. Balotelli started on the bench and, with mark, Floro Flores made an immediate impact Bacca and Adriano in fine fettle, was kept there for the visitors as they fought for a late goal in by Mihajlovic as his side scraped a first league what was a balanced encounter at the Renato win of the season two weeks ahead of their next dall’Ara stadium. Minutes from the final whistle, GERMANY: Dortmund’s Adrian Ramos (right) jumps beside Berlin’s Sebastian Langkamp during the German Bundesliga soccer match. — AP outing, away to Inter. Bologna’s defence was caught unawares by a Colombian striker Bacca, signed from Sevilla Sassuolo counter-attack and an alert Floro Flores in the summer, gave the hosts a 16th minute pounced on a deflected pass from fellow for- Dortmund reclaim top spot lead after a combination of pace and power ward Karim Laribi to beat Antonio Mirante with took him past Marco Zambelli to beat on-rush- a well-taken angled drive. —AFP BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund reclaimed top spot star Kevin de Bruyne, who completed his trans- country’s World Cup qualifier against Cambodia in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich yesterday fer to Manchester City on Sunday. in Saitama on Thursday with his first two with a 3-1 victory over Hertha Berlin their eighth On Saturday, Bayern impressed in their win Bundesliga goals in Mainz’s 3-0 win over straight win under new coach Thomas Tuchel. over Leverkusen as Mueller scored twice, to Hanover. As the only teams in Germany’s top flight to leave him with five goals in his opening three Centre-forward Yunus Malli claimed Mainz’s have won their opening three matches, league matches, before new Netherlands cap- third by finishing off a sweeping counter-attack Dortmund are matching Bayern’s impressive tain Arjen Robben netted a late penalty. just after the break as Mainz moved up to fifth. form as the Bavarians bid to become the first Cologne’s impressive start continued as they fin- Socceroos forward Mathew Leckie also side to win fourth straight German league titles. ish the weekend fourth after a 2-1 comeback scored his first goal in Germany’s top flight in Dortmund are top only on goal difference from win at home to Hamburg in controversial fash- Ingolstadt’s 1-0 win at Bavarian rivals Augsburg. Bayern, who romped to a 3-0 home win over ion. The 24-year-old left winger, who has won 25 Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. After ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Lewis caps for Australia, curled a superb shot inside Borussia saw off Hertha at their Holtby put Hamburg ahead early in the second the left-hand post, which gave Augsburg goal- Westfalenstadion with goals from captain Mats half, Cologne levelled through Philipp Hosiner keeper Marwin Hitz no chance on 63 minutes. Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and on 76 minutes, but the game turned on a dubi- Ten-man Stuttgart are bottom after a 4-1 defeat Adrian Ramos. “The hardest thing today was to ous red card and penalty. Hamburg’s ex-Bosnia at home to Eintracht Frankfurt as Poland goal- keep the pace up,” said Hummels, who said his captain Emir Spahic was sent off on 79 minutes keeper Przemyslaw Tyton was sent off for the side were feeling the effects of Thursday’s 7-2 for the slightest of touches on Cologne striker hosts. Darmstadt are 11th after their third win at home to Odds BK to qualify for the Europa Anthony Modeste, who drilled home the result- straight draw following a goalless effort at home League’s group stages. ing penalty to the fury of the visitors’ bench. to Hoffenheim. — AFP “It wasn’t a good performance from us, but Japan striker Yoshinori Muto warmed up for his we still won. “We could have decided it earlier and it was annoying to concede the late goal, because we were a little flat.” German Bundesliga results/standings Pitchside temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius ITALY: AC Milan’s Luiz Adriano challenges for the ball with Empoli’s Andrea Costa during a (89.6 Fahrenheit) meant the game was frequent- Borussia Dortmund 3 (Hummels 27, (Castaignos 42, 87, Seferovic 69, Hlousek 11- Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the San Siro stadium. — AP ly interrupted for water breaks as Dortmund Aubameyang 51, Ramos 90+3) Hertha Berlin og); Augsburg 0 Ingolstadt 1 (Leckie 63); continued their red-hot form when Hummels 1 (Kalou 78) Cologne 2 (Hosiner 76, Modeste 81-pen) powered home a Shinji Kagawa cross on 27 min- Playing later Hamburg 1 (Holtby 47); Mainz 05 3 (Muto 15, Cruz Azul woes worsen utes. Aubamenyang claimed his seventh goal in Werder Bremen v Borussia Moenchengladbach 29, Malli 47) Hanover 96 0; Darmstadt 0 eight games after right-back Matthias Ginter Played Saturday Hoffenheim 0; Bayern Munich 3 (Mueller 26, MEXICO CITY: A knee ligament injury to win at Toluca on Sunday. Mexico striker Oribe combined with Kagawa to set up a simple tap-in VfB Stuttgart 1 (Didavi 30) Eintracht Frankfurt 4 60-pen, Robben 71-pen) Bayer Leverkusen 0. Spanish midfielder Marc Crosas was the worst Peralta put CONCACAF champions America on 51 minutes. setback of a dismal Mexican Apertura champi- ahead in the 48th minute and Argentine Ex-Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou pulled a German Bundesliga table after yesterday’s early match (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals onship for Cruz Azul whose home loss to Dario Benedetto increased their lead in the goal back for Hertha on 78 minutes before against, points): America was their fourth in a row. Crosas, who 75th with his seventh goal in six matches. Colombia striker Adrian Ramos came off the Borussia Dortmund 3 3 0 0 11 1 9 Hertha Berlin 3 1 1 1 3 4 4 is in his fourth year in Mexico, was hurt near “Sadly we’re not understanding that bench to score Borussia’s third on 93 minutes, Bayern Munich 3 3 0 0 10 1 9 Darmstadt 98 3 0 3 0 3 3 3 the end of Saturday’s match and is unlikely to matches last 90 minutes... We allowed our but it looked like the ball had run out of play in play again until midway through the Clausura opponents to score a goal with a total lack of VfL Wolfsburg 3 2 1 0 6 2 7 Hamburg 3 1 0 2 4 9 3 the build-up. Cologne 3 2 1 0 6 3 7 Hoffenheim 3 0 1 2 2 4 1 championship in the second half of the sea- attention in not following the move,” Bueno Later on Sunday, Champions League side son. “A scan showed ruptured cruciate liga- said. “The fact is we had a mixed match and Mainz 3 2 0 1 5 2 6 Augsburg 3 0 1 2 1 3 1 Borussia Moenchengladbach have the chance to ments in his right knee, so the holding mid- from their first goal the team lost their shape,” Bayer Leverkusen 3 2 0 1 3 4 6 Werder Bremen 2 0 1 1 1 4 1 fielder will be off the pitch for approximately he told reporters.