Pro Eleven Headline News
Juventus outclass Milan, leaders Inter win
Juventus beat a disorganised AC Milan 4-2 in an enthralling Serie A encounter on Sunday to go clear in second place.
Striker Amauri scored twice to put Juve six points behind leaders Inter Milan, who earlier defeated bottom side Chievo 4-2, while Milan now trail their city rivals by nine after 16 matches.
Driving rain made conditions in Turin difficult but Italy's two most successful teams of the last 20 years still put on a hugely enjoyable show.
Alessandro Del Piero gave the hosts the lead with a 16th-minute penalty after being brought down by Marek Jankulovski, who touched the ball with his sliding tackle.
Milan, without the injured Kaka, levelled on half an hour when Kakha Kaladze released Ronaldinho and the Brazilian set up compatriot Alexandre Pato to crash home from close range.
Juve went in front again just four minutes later when defender Giorgio Chiellini found space to head in a corner and Brazilian-born Amauri exposed more loose Milan defending when he nodded in Paolo De Ceglie's excellent cross.
The visitors introduced Andriy Shevchenko at halftime and they pulled one back on 56 minutes through Massimo Ambrosini's deflected shot but their hopes ended when former Juve defender Gianluca Zambrotta was sent off for a second booking.
Amauri then squeezed in his second in the 69th minute to leave Milan in joint third with Napoli, who beat Lecce 3-0 on Saturday.
INTER'S SAVIOUR
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice in the last 11 minutes to seal a nervous win for Inter at home to Chievo on a day packed with goals and comebacks.
The champions were cruising at 2-0 following quality strikes from Maxwell and Dejan Stankovic but the visitors hauled themselves level through Sergio Pellissier and Simone Bentivoglio before Swede Ibrahimovic was again Inter's saviour.
"At 2-0 everyone in the stadium and on the pitch thought the game was over. It is a lesson," Inter coach Jose Mourinho said.
AS Roma triumphed in another fluctuating game, Mirko Vucinic netting the stoppage-time winner in a 3-2 victory over Cagliari.
Luciano Spalletti's side, who had a terrible start to the season, have now won five league games on the bounce to rise up to mid-table.
In-form Francesco Totti lashed in the opener for the hosts but Daniele Conti's free kick and a superb strike from Jeda put the Sardinians ahead. Simone Perrotta's overhead kick and a scruffy finish from Vucinic helped Roma roar back.
Lazio are a point ahead of their city rivals after coming back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 at Udinese, who folded like so often in recent weeks having been early season pacesetters.
Gamba Osaka Next Up for Manchester United
Manchester United found out the identity of their first opponents in the 2008 Club World Cup today as Asian Champions Gamba Osaka defeated Adelaide United 1-0 to progress to the semifinals.
Gamba had beaten Adelaide twice in the AFC Champions League Final to earn a 5-0 aggregate win, but only one goal was required this time round, as Yasuhito Endo scored to put the Japanese side into a dream semifinal with the European Champions, which will be played in Yokohama on Thursday.
The winners, likely to be United, will play the winners of the other semifinal between North American Champions Pachuca and South American Champions LDU Quito next week to determine the new World Champions. AC Milan won the tournament last year, defeating the then-South American Champions Boca Juniors 4-2.
Scolari feels the pain as Chelsea miss their chance to seize top spot
The Premier League has become a picturesque landscape of fallen fortresses. The ramparts of Stamford Bridge no longer look impregnable. An equaliser here was until recently a down payment on near-certain victory for Chelsea, but Luiz Felipe Scolari's side soon slipped back into faltering ways after Nicolas Anelka had brought them level yesterday. The side has now won just three of their nine League fixtures at home, dropping 14 points.
There is protective cover for this embarrassment since the leaders Liverpool, a point ahead of Chelsea, are getting bogged down at Anfield. The reigning champions Manchester United may not experience this syndrome profoundly, but even they have dropped a couple of points at Old Trafford. It might be valid to speak of a levelling down in the League, but West Ham deserve great praise for rising to match Chelsea.
Having led, they might have lost had the referee Mike Riley detected Lucas Neill's contact on Frank Lampard, following a pass from the substitute Didier Drogba, in the 88th minute. "There was contact but I don't think I could have done anything about it," said the Australian full-back with the sort of explanation normally shunned by an official. It was typical of West Ham's perseverance, however, that there was further action to take people's minds off that incident. In stoppage time, the influential Valon Behrami put Carlton Cole through, but Petr Cech reached his lame attempt.
There was an air of reunion about the fixture, with Cole just one of the people returning to his former place of work. There was, naturally, greater attention reserved for the arrival of Gianfranco Zola, coming back to foil Chelsea initiatives rather than inspire them. He has, with alarming speed, accumulated experience of the hazards of management, with doubts already arising over his prospects of keeping the job.
As well as West Ham conducted themselves, there was nothing unduly delicate about the line-up, despite the artistry that was once the essence of the person who selected it. Scott Parker, yet another returnee, was tough and effective. "Had Scotty stayed, he could have broken into our team," wrote the Chelsea captain John Terry in his programme notes. The defender would have wished those words had not gone on to seem so prescient.
The weekend was troubling for Scolari, who had spent the night in hospital before the match because of kidney stones. "They say it's more painful than having a baby," he said, as men are wont to do in this situation. It would undoubtedly be flippant that his team causes him as much suffering, but he is unhappy about his fortunes. "Don't forget," he said, "that [I haven't had] a penalty in this competition. Any other club will have had three, four or five by now. But with my players it's never a penalty."
This seemed to be the first sign of paranoia in the Brazilian, but, to his credit, he faulted the display by his players and emphasised that there is labouring ahead on the training ground. To his way of thinking, the attackers had been too static. Scolari suggested that there will be no purchases or sales in January, with the emphasis to be put on improving the displays of those already on the payroll.
He might still have got his way, regardless of all that. Rob Green, largely convincing, miscued a punch that would have brought an own goal in the 69th minute, had Parker, on the line, not knocked it onto the crossbar. That could have been a winner for Chelsea, who had levelled slickly after 51 minutes. That equaliser, with its confident one-touch passing, had been redolent of the side's magisterial away form.
Lampard was at the start of the move and re-entered it, after Mikel John Obi had linked with Drogba to send Anelka through for the leveller. For all that, West Ham had seldom been outclassed. The opener was not a startling development when the readiness to carry the game to Chelsea had been so apparent. After a throw-in, Mark Noble appeared to control with a shoulder and, while opponents screamed for a foul, he set up Craig Bellamy to convert firmly.
Chelsea recovered to a certain extent, but they seem neither secure in defence or incisive in attack at home. Since the loss to Liverpool at Stamford Bridge they have mustered one win here.
There is something predictable about Scolari's line-up when it does not enjoy the freedom experienced in away matches, where the onus is on the opposition to take the initiative.
That problem might be addressed if Drogba were to be paired with Anelka from kick-off, yet Scolari frets that two outright strikers could be denied possession if Chelsea were thereby undermanned in midfield.
Zola himself had the confidence afterwards to speak not merely of the benefits of meeting clubs who have been taxed by midweek Champions League campaigns but also of "smaller teams who are getting organised and playing more tactically." West Ham's showing had given him every right to make that claim.
Bernd Schuster To Become New Sunderland Manager?
According to The Sunday Telegraph, sacked Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster is eager to become the new manager of the Premier League club Sunderland.
Schuster was sacked by Real Madrid last week after a series of dismal performances by the reigning Spanish champions. He was given the green signal to leave the Bernabeu on Tuesday and the Blancos immediately recruited the former Sevilla and Tottenham Hotspur boss Juande Ramos as their new coach for until the end of the season at least.
Now it has emerged that the German is eager to try himself in England and has raised his hand for the still vacant Sunderland job. Sunderland are still to decide whom to appoint as their new manager after they parted compay with Roy Keane.
Would Schuster be the right man? He did some wonderful things at Spanish minnows Getafe and led Madrid to the league title in Spain last season. So he does possess the pedigree, doesn’t he?
But does he possess the mentality to manage a struggling Premier League club?
