Juventus rescue late point in draw with Cagliari
Ekitiké scores winner as Eintracht Frankfurt beat Augsburg
GENOA, Italy, April 20, (AP): Cagliari scored two first-half penalties but gave up a late own goal for Juventus to draw 2-2 in a thrilling Serie A game.
Gianluca Gaetano opened the scoring for the home side after half an hour and Yerry Mina got a second with an almost identical spot kick six minutes later.
Juventus had a first-half goal from Dušan Vlahović disallowed after a video review but the Serbian forward got one back in the 61st minute with a swerving free kick.
SOCCER
Just when it looked like Cagliari would get the win and distance itself from the relegation zone, Alberto Dossena put the ball into his own net with three minutes left.
Juventus was five points behind second-placed AC Milan and 19 behind champion-elect Inter Milan. Juve has won only one of its last seven league games.
Cagliari was five points above the relegation zone but still in a dogfight.
Only six points separated Sassuolo in 19th place and Lecce in 13th.
With Salernitana almost certainly going down, two others will join it.
A second-half goal from Luis Alberto gave Lazio a 1-0 win at Genoa and moved the capital club into sixth and within touching distance of a Champions League spot.
The result snapped Genoa’s fourgame unbeaten run and was another good result for a visitor which has won four of its last five league games.
Lazio was one place and one point ahead of Atalanta, which has two games in hand.
The top five teams in Serie A are guaranteed a place in next year’s expanded 36-team Champions League. Sixth spot could be enough if Roma or Atalanta win the Europa League. Genoa remained in 10th place. In Berlin, Hugo Ekitiké scored his first goal for Eintracht Frankfurt to help it to a 3-1 come-from-behind win over Augsburg in the Bundesliga.
Signed on a 3.5 million euros ($3.7 million) loan from Paris SaintGermain in January, the center forward finally broke his duck in his 12th appearance.
Ekitiké’s goal was a low shot in off the post from 15 yards out. The strike an hour in came six minutes after Fares Chaibi canceled Ruben Vargas’ 13th-minute opener for Augsburg.
Omar Marmoush completed the scoring in stoppage time with a dramatic third. The Augsburg goalkeeper had gone forward for a corner kick and the clearance fell to Marmoush, who ran 70 yards to put the ball in the empty net.
The result opened a six-point gap between Frankfurt in sixth and Augsburg in seventh.
Frankfurt’s first win in five games further put the brakes on Augsburg’s recent good run.
In Madrid, Athletic Bilbao drew with Granada 1-1 in a Spanish league match that won’t satisfy either club for different reasons.
Bilbao need points to secure a Champions League place but the draw left it three behind Atletico Madrid, which has a game in hand.
Atletico has fourth place, with the top four guaranteed places in next year’s Champions League.
“The Champions League spot is the dream,” Bilbao’s Nico Williams said. “It’s frustrating when the ball won’t go in, but we have to keep plugging away.”
At the other end of the table, Granada is in serious relegation danger. With six matches remaining, it is seven points behind third-to-last Cadiz. Almeria is in last place.
Granada’s hopes of a fourth win of the season were raised early in the first half when a Gerard Gumbau corner kick took the slightest of touches off Bilbao’s Iñaki Williams and flew in.
But the home side drew equal after 23 minutes. Gorka Guruzeta showed the poacher’s instinct that has brought him 13 league goals when he pounced on a loose ball and fired into the roof of the net.
Gorkueta had a goal bound shot cleared off the line by Ignasi Miquel a few minutes later and Iñaki Williams almost made up for his earlier mistake but his late volley flashed wide of the post
In Nice, Nice beat Lorient 3-0 to record just its second win in eight French league games and send the visitor to second to last on the table on Friday.
Poor defending away from home cost Lorient dear and not for the first time this season. The Brittany club has conceded at least one goal in each of its last 14 away games.
A mix up in the Lorient midfield allowed Morgan Sanson to stride forward and open the scoring midway through the first half. Jérémie Boga made it two seven minutes into the second period with a low drive off a defender on the goal-line.
Substitute Evan Guessand scored
with two minutes remaining to complete the rout.
The result left Lorient only four points ahead of last-placed Clermont. Lorient was below Metz on goal difference.
Nice was fifth.