European football: Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns to haunt Inter
The 274th “Derby della Madonnina” failed to live up to the hype, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s penalty has heaped the pressure on Inter boss Rafael Benitez.
AC Milan’s Ibrahimovic – who on Sunday night became the 27th man to have played for both Milan clubs in the derby – converted from the spot just five minutes in at the San Siro, after Inter’s Marco Materazzi had tripped the Swede just inside the penalty area.
Benitez’s Inter looked devoid of ideas, and were unable to get back into the game despite Ignazio Abate seeing red for Milan on the hour mark.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men stay top of Serie A with the 1-0 win, a result which leaves champions Inter languishing in fifth.
Elsewhere on a big weekend in Italy – where the top six were all playing each other – second-placed Lazio widened the gap between them and Napoli in third with a 2-0 win in Rome. Mauro Zarate and Sergio Floccari grabbed the goals, while Francesco Totti scored from the spot in Roma’s 1-1 draw at Juventus, who took the lead through Vincenzo Iaquinta’s acrobatic volley from ex-Roma man Alberto Aquilani’s cross. Palermo move into seventh thanks to Javier Pastore’s hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Catania.
Over in Spain it’s very much business as usual, as Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Villarreal on Saturday night was followed up by Real Madrid winning at Sporting Gijón on Sunday.
Barça sparkled against the Yellow Submarines, taking the lead through David Villa before Brazilian Nilmar’s equaliser pegged them back. Inevitably though, two second half goals from Leo Messi sealed the points.
That result put the Catalans top of the league for 24 hours, until an uninspiring Real ground out a hard fought 1-0 win in Gijón – Gonzalo Higuain with the late winner, while both Valencia and Sevilla kept up their challenge for Champions League qualification alive with victories, the latter winning 2-1 at rock-bottom Zaragoza thanks to Alvaro Negredo’s last gasp goal. Sevilla were down to 10 men at the time, with Fernando Navarro given his marching orders.
Over in France, shock league leaders Brest stay top, but their lead has been cut to just one point following a home draw with Sochaux. Nolan Roux grabbed Brest’s equaliser, but Lille are still breathing down the newly promoted side’s necks, and won 5-2 at Caen with Moussa Sow hitting a hat-trick.
Montpellier are third after Olivier Giroud scored the only goal against Toulouse, while fourth-placed Paris Saint-Germain had to rely on Nenê’s last minute equaliser to take a point from Lorient. Champions Marseille continue to underperform and drew 1-1 at home to struggling Lens, but things may be looking up for Bordeaux and Lyon, who ground out home wins against Nancy and Nice respectively.
Borussia Dortmund continue to run away with it in Germany, and beat Hamburg 2-0 on Friday night thanks to Shinji Kagawa and Lucas Barrios.
They are now seven points clear after Mainz lost 1-0 at home to Hannover, whose winner came from Sérgio Pinto, with Bayer Leverkusen taking advantage and moving into second thanks to their 1-0 win at St Pauli courtesy of a Renato Augusto goal.
Freiburg are fourth after Papiss Cissé’s stoppage time strike beat Hoffenheim, while the in-form Mario Gomez hit two in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Nuremburg. The game of the weekend probably came at Kaiserslautern though, where the hosts came back from 3-0 down to earn a point against Stuttgart, Iliyan Mitsanski, Ivo Iličević and Mathias Abel with the goals.
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