SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2014 SPORTS Italian League Napoli see off Roma MILAN: A spectacular early strike from added. Napoli should have put the match Gonzalo Higuain and a late Jose Callejon to bed well before the half-time whistle. goal handed Napoli a precious 2-0 win over Insigne was in fine form, the diminutive title challengers Roma that moved Rafael striker seeing two great chances go amiss Benitez’s men up to third in Serie A yester- including one which De Sanctis, who day. The sides met at Napoli’s San Paolo sta- shipped seven goals in a recent 7-1 dium for the first time since the death of Champions League drubbing by Bayern 31-year-old Ciro Esposito, a Napoli fan who Munich, tipped round the post. Callejon was killed by a hardline Roma ‘ultra’ on the was next to test De Sanctis, the Spaniard fringes of the Italian Cup final last May. unleashing a drive that rattled the Roma Approximately 600 police were crossbar. deployed in and around the stadium but The hosts spurned further chances just the drama was played out exclusively on before half-time when Callejon turned the pitch as Napoli dominated from the Marek Hamsik’s assist wide of the upright. outset to rubber-stamp their return to form Insigne then set up Higuain, only for De following a difficult start to the season. Sanctis to push the ball to safety before the “I’ve said for a long time we need to take striker could get his shot away and Hamsik it one game at a time. I don’t deserve the fired the follow-up off the crossbar. credit for this win, it’s all down to the play- Apart from two half-chances by ers,” Benitez told Sky Sport. Alessandro Florenzi just before the hour, In front of a half-empty stadium, follow- Roma struggled to pose any real threat ing a decision to ban travelling supporters after the restart, prompting Garcia to from the capital and surrounding regions, replace the right winger and captain Higuain gave the hosts a three-minute lead Francesco Totti with Juan Iturbe and Mattia with an acrobatic bicycle kick that beat Destro on 65 minutes. Roma ‘keeper Morgan De Sanctis from However their arrival failed to spark inside the area. Roma who found themselves facing just Lorenzo Insigne’s long-distance drive their second defeat of the campaign when SPAIN: Real Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa (center) duels for the ball against Granada’s goalkeeper Roberto Fernandez and Allan Romero Nyom from was deflected and as it fell in front of Radja Nainggolan was dispossessed in mid- France during a Spanish La Liga soccer match. —AP Higuain and the striker turned on the vol- field by Walter Gargano. ley to beat the Roma ‘keeper from 10 yards. Higuain, who had failed to find the net Spanish League It was the Argentinian’s fifth goal inside in Napoli’s opening eight league games, a week, Higuain having scored a hat-trick collected and threaded a perfect ball last weekend in a 6-2 win over Verona and through for Callejon to beat De Sanctis one from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw from the edge of the area first-time for Real rout Granada to away to Atalanta in midweek. Napoli’s second five minutes from time. Higuain set up Callejon for Napoli’s sec- It was Callejon’s eighth goal of the cam- ond five minutes from time to rubber- paign and left the Spaniard top of the stamp their return to form following a dis- league scoring charts. mal start to the campaign. Napoli’s fifth win in 10 games means climb top of the table “Napoli were the strongest. The best they move up to third place only four team won,” said Roma coach Rudi Garcia, points behind leaders Juventus and sec- MADRID: Real Madrid moved to the top of La ing his side hit 46 goals over their last 11 games. ued after the break. whose side are now in danger of dropping ond-placed Roma. Liga for the first time this season as goals from “Rodriguez scored a fantastic goal, but so did A wonderful backheel from Ronaldo teed up three points behind Juventus when the Juventus can pull clear of Roma with a Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and a James Ronaldo from another Benzema assist. It is Benzema to make it 3-0 with his ninth goal of leaders meet Empoli later yesterday. “At the win later Saturday at Empoli, while Napoli Rodriguez double handed them a 4-0 win at becoming hard to talk about Ronaldo because the season nine minutes into the second-half. start we got our approach all wrong. In the could be overtaken by four teams who sit Granada. there are no words left to describe him.” Marcelo then crashed an effort off the cross- first half we hardly won any of our tackles.” only two points adrift and are yet to play. It took Ronaldo just 100 seconds to register Ancelotti’s men were full of confidence after bar on his weaker right foot as the visitors con- Garcia admitted Roma had suffered a “men- Lazio, Milan, Sampdoria and Udinese all his 22nd goal of the season when he swept inflicting Barca’s first league defeat of the sea- tinued the search for more goals. tal problem”. sit on 16 points and face Cagliari, Palermo, home Benzema’s cut-back to punish some lax son last weekend and went in front with their Yet, it was Granada who should have “It’s the first time it’s happened, but we Fiorentina and Genoa respectively this Granada defending. first attack as Dani Carvajal robbed Jeison reduced the deficit when Ruben Rochina was have to make sure it’s the last time,” he weekend.—AFP There was nothing the hosts could do as Murillo and Benzema squared for Ronado to slot left with the goal at his mercy but fired straight Rodriguez doubled Madrid’s lead nine minutes low past Roberto. into the body of the prone Sergio Ramos. before half-time, though, as the Colombian Madrid threatened to run riot as Murillo With an 11th consecutive victory in all com- unleashed a sumptuous dipping volley into the blocked a goalbound shot from Benzema petitions assured, Ancelotti could afford to with- far corner. before Isco saw a dipping effort fly over. Carvajal draw Luka Modric and Isco with Tuesday’s Ronaldo returned the favor to Benzema as he then should have finished off a stunning move Champions League clash with Liverpool in slotted home the third early in the second-half when he blazed over from close range. mind. before Rodriguez forced home his second of the However, Rodriguez applied the quality fin- Right-back Carvajal is a doubt for that game afternoon from close range four minutes from ishing touch his teammates had been lacking as he limped off in the first-half to be replaced time. with a stunning volley reminiscent of his strike by Alvaro Arbeloa and the former Liverpool full- Victory takes Madrid two points clear of against Uruguay on his way to becoming the back should have scored a rare goal when his Barcelona, but the Catalans can reclaim top spot top scorer at the World Cup. Despite Granada weak finish was turned behind by Roberto. when they host Celta Vigo later yesterday. boss Joaquin Caparros’s attempts to freshen up Rodriguez did finally make it four when he bun- “We need to keep working to keep this run his side with the introduction of Javi Marquez dled Ronaldo’s wayward effort over the line late going,” said Real boss Carlo Ancelotti after see- and Youssef El-Arabi, the one way traffic contin- on. —AFP German League Wolves climb to second spot BERLIN: VfL Wolfsburg climbed to second in the Bundesliga yesterday with a 4-0 hammering of VfB Stuttgart as ex-Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne tore the hosts’ defence to shreds. De Bruyne netted his first goal of the season and created another two as Wolves picked up their sixth SAN PAULO: Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly (left) and Roma’s Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa vie for straight win in all competitions. the ball during a Serie A soccer match. —AP “The 50,000 spectators who came won’t have regretted their decision, it was a great game and Preview could have been 8-5 if all the chances had gone in,” enthused Wolves coach Dieter Hecking. Manchester supremacy “You could complain about the lack of finished chances, but that would be whinging of the highest on line in derby clash order.” The 23-year-old de Bruyne LONDON: Manchester football supremacy will went to the Etihad in December of that cam- was in the thick of things, providing be at stake at the Etihad Stadium today when paign, winning 3-2 through an injury-time a free-kick for Robin Knoche to head Premier League rivals Manchester City and Robin van Persie free-kick to move six points Wolves into a 2-0 lead at the break Manchester United face off in a potentially clear of City. after Croatia international Ivan momentous derby showdown. United goalkeep- Another stoppage-time goal by Van Persie Perisic’s opening goal for the guests. ing great Peter Schmeichel, who also played for means that United approach Sunday’s game Belgium’s de Bruyne then volleyed their cross-town rivals, opined this week that with renewed confidence, after the Dutch strik- home from close range on 48 min- City’s status as champions meant that they are er earned his side a morale-boosting 1-1 draw utes before robbing Moritz Leitner presently “a bigger club” than United.