SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 SPORTS Roma top Serie A MILAN: A messy first-half effort from Iago Dzeko narrowly failed to connect with Falque and a cracking Juan Iturbe strike at Falque’s cross from close in and Seydou the death sent Roma provisionally top of Keita should have done better with a free Serie A on Saturday after a 2-0 win away to header when Alessandro Florenzi whipped Serie A new boys Frosinone. in a delightful ball towards the back post. Roma coach Rudi Garcia had warned his Roma took the lead on the stroke of half- scudetto-chasing side not to take time when a Lucas Digne throw-in bounced Frosinone, based 75km south-east of the through the Frosinone defence, allowing capital, lightly. Falque a touch from close in to bundle over The Frenchman’s words proved judicious at the back post. as the Canaries kept the Giallorossi on their As maiden goals go, it wasn’t the nicest toes, notably losing claims for a penalty in but it gave Roma the edge to up the pace in the second half, before relinquishing arms a more positive second half that saw Garcia in the latter stages. reshuffle again after replacing Dzeko with Garcia paid tribute to Frosinone, and Radja Nainggolan. while hailing Roma’s defence he regretted Roma were given the benefit of the their lack of real chances on goal. “Fair play doubt on the hour when French defender to Frosinone, they battled throughout and if Digne, who was inside the area, used his they keep that up they’ll have a good sea- hands to protect his face when the ball was son,” Garcia told Sky Sport. crossed in from the right. The ball came off “I’m happy with the attitude we showed, Digne’s arm but the referee waved away although we didn’t have enough shots on Frosinone’s claims for a penalty. Only a goal. There’s still work to do but we defend- minute later, Daniel Ciofani came close for ed well. “We needed the three points and the hosts with a header from a corner. that’s what we got.” Garcia made a late change that effective- Days before their Champions League ly changed the outcome. Iturbe replaced group opener at home to defending cham- Totti on 81 minutes and minutes later pions Barcelona and in the absence of Florenzi hit post and crossbar with a right- injured Bosnian forward Miralem Pjanic, foot missile. Iturbe’s winner came in extra- Garcia was forced to reshuffle. time, the Argentinian latching on to Iconic club captain Francesco Totti made Mohamed Salah’s pass to power down the his first league start of the season playing right and, despite having Gervinho to his SPAIN: Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring against Espanyol during a Spanish La Liga soccer match at behind lone striker Edin Dzeko in a 4-2-3-1 left, turn his marker and fire inside Nicola Cornella-El Prat stadium. —AP formation, while Antonio Rudiger made his Leali’s far post. Frosinone, promoted with Roma debut in central defence. At the Carpi and Bologna, are without a win in 10,000-capacity Stadio Matusa, Frosinone, three games and sit rock bottom. playing their first season in Italy’s top flight, Elsewhere, Khouma Babacar headed home Messi downs Atletico were defiant. on the hour for Fiorentina to secure a 1-0 Efforts by Aleksandar Tonev, from long win at home to Genoa. Later Saturday, range, and a Robert Gucher lob were not far champions Juventus bid for their first win of off target, although Roma missed first-half the season, after defeats to Udinese and as Ronaldo slams five chances too. Roma, at home to Chievo. —AFP MADRID: Lionel Messi celebrated the birth of midway through the half when he turned Earlier, Ronaldo silenced any critics about his his second son by coming off the bench to score Rafinha’s flick onto the crossbar from point- lack of early season form by scoring five times in the winner as Barcelona came from behind to blank range. a La Liga match for the second time in five claim a vital 2-1 win away at Atletico Madrid yes- Jose Maria Gimenez then made a terrific months. terday. block to deny Neymar the opener after a rapid The Portuguese slotted home the opener Real Madrid remain two points behind Barca counter-attack from Barca, but the Uruguayan from Luka Modric’s wonderful pass before dou- at the top of the table after Cristiano Ronaldo was also fortunate the referee didn’t point to the bling his tally from the penalty spot after Gareth became the club’s all-time leading scorer in La spot as the ball ricocheted off his hand to safety. Bale had been felled inside the area. Liga with five goals in a 6-0 rout of Espanyol. Atletico struck first six minutes after the break Bale crossed for Ronaldo to complete his Messi started on the sidelines having missed when Torres latched onto Tiago’s through ball 32nd hat-trick for Madrid and the World Player training on Friday to attend the birth, a day after and his shot found the net via the far post. of the Year then turned provider himself for returning from international duty. However, the lead lasted barely three minutes Karim Benzema to tap home a fourth before However, he was still to make the decisive as in the absence of Messi, Neymar was given half-time. contribution as he nonchalantly flicked home the chance to strike a free-kick from the edge of Ronaldo finished off another unselfish piece the winner 11 minutes from time after Neymar the area and arrowed the ball into Oblak’s top of play by Bale before smashing home his fifth had cancelled out Fernando Torres’s opener. right-hand corner. 10 minutes from time. The former Manchester Even without Messi, Barca were the dominant Messi was introduced for the final half hour United man’s five-goal haul takes him ahead of side early on at the Calderon with Ivan Rakitic by Barca boss Luis Enrique and he and Neymar Madrid legends Raul and Alfredo di Stefano to forcing Jan Oblak into the first serious save of combined to set up a great chance for Suarez become the club’s all-time leading scorer in La the game with a fierce drive from a narrow only for the former Liverpool man to scuff wide. Liga with 330 goals. “Someone who scores so angle. Felipe Luis made a desperate clearance off many goals has their place in history forever like Torres was again chosen ahead of Jackson the line from Neymar as the pressure built from Raul or Di Stefano,” said Madrid boss Rafael Martinez in attack for Atletico and he wasted the the European champions. And it finally told Benitez. “I think we are speaking of three historic hosts’ best chance of the first-half when he blast- when a neat exchange between Messi and players and I hope Cristiano continues adding to ed over under pressure from Javier Mascherano. Suarez freed the Argentine to lift the ball over his tally for his good and the good of the Luis Suarez should have given Barca the lead Oblak into the far corner. team.”—AFP Bayern keep pace with Dortmund Matches on TV BERLIN: Thomas Mueller converted a controversial 90th turned in a great performance and we can certainly build (Local Timings) minute penalty as Bayern Munich came back from a goal on this,” he added. Dortmund kept pace with their bitter down to defeat Bavarian rivals Augsburg 2-1 while Borussia rivals after they rode a pair of penalties from Gabon inter- English Premier League Dortmund also made it four Bundesliga wins from four yes- national Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to come back and terday. defeat Hanover 4-2 at the HDI-Arena. Artur Sobiech had Sunderland v Tottenham 15:30 Robert Lewandowski began the champions’ comeback given the winless hosts an 18th minute lead before beIN SPORTS as the Polish international struck with 13 minutes left after Aubameyang converted the first of his spot-kicks 10 min- Leicester v Aston Villa 18:00 Alexander Esswein had opened the scoring for the visitors utes before half-time. on the stroke of half-time. However, as the match appeared Henrik Mikhitaryan put Dortmund in front for the first beIN SPORTS to be heading for a draw, the referee harshly pointed to the time just before the break before Sobiech grabbed his sec- spot with time running out when Douglas Costa was ond on 53 minutes to level the match at 2-2. Brazilian Spanish League brought down by Markus Feulner, which allowed the cool- defender Felipe was the unfortunate victim of an own goal headed Mueller to snatch the points for Bayern. with 23 minutes left to give Dortmund the lead for the sec- Granada v Villarreal 13:00 Bayern coach Pep Guardiola fielded a weakened line-up ond time before Aubameyang slotted home his second beIN SPORTS with one eye on their Champions League group match penalty on 85 minutes to put the result beyond doubt. against Olympiakos, on Wednesday in Athens, and was “It was a superb team performance,” said Dortmund Bilbao v Getafe 17:00 without star forward Arjen Robben, who out for four weeks coach Thomas Tuchel, who was particularly pleased with beIN SPORTS with a groin injury picked up on international duty. the “patience of the team when they were 1-0 down” as Augsburg had won the same fixture last season 1-0 well as the “response after the equaliser”.