The Malta Independent on Sunday
Roma and Milan draw 1‑1 after goals in stoppage time
Roma and AC Milan netted in stoppage time to draw 1‐1 in Serie A, a result on Saturday that did neither any favors in a tight race for the Champions League qualifying spots.
Tammy Abraham thought he secured a crucial win for Roma when he scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time with the first shot on target of the match.
But Alexis Saelemaekers lev‐ eled three minutes later to leave Abraham shaking his head almost in disbelief.
Fourth‐placed Milan led Roma on goal difference. Head‐ to‐head is the first tiebreaker but the sides are level after two late Roma goals helped it snatch a 2‐2 draw at Milan in January. They are also level on goal difference.
But Roma has eight goals less than Milan overall.
Inter Milan can move level on points with a win over second‐ placed Lazio on Sunday. But Lazio needs the victory to pre‐ vent Napoli from clinching the title when it plays Salernitana later that day, in a match that was rescheduled from Satur‐ day for security reasons.
Late Saturday, seventh‐placed Atalanta could close the gap to the top four to two points if it won at Torino.
Roma forward Paulo Dybala was fit only for a place on the bench at Stadio Olimpico after hurting an ankle last weekend in the loss at Atalanta. He was sorely missed as Roma — and Milan — struggled to carve out chances.
Roma had the best chance of the first half but Lorenzo Pelle‐ grini's close‐range effort was accidentally charged down by his own teammate, Abraham.
Milan almost broke the dead‐ lock on the hour mark when Olivier Giroud knocked the ball down for Rafael Leão and he managed to cut into the box and cross for an unmarked Saelemaekers at the back post, but his volley was narrowly over the bar.
It appeared as if Roma won the match when Mehmet Çelik picked up the ball just inside his own half and sprinted foward.
He picked out Abraham, who took one touch and fired into the bottom left corner to send the Stadio Olimpico wild with joy.
But moments later, the home fans were silenced. A poor clearance from Gianluca Mancini came to Leão, who floated in a cross that Saele‐ maekers managed this time to volley in from close range.
Job done for Hodgson at Palace as Brighton hits Wolves for 6
It's job done for Roy Hodgson. The former England coach was enticed out of retirement at the age of 75 in late March, tasked with keeping Crystal Palace in the Premier League as the team plunged toward the relegation zone on the back of a 13‐match winless run.
Hodgson, one of the most well‐ respected and well‐traveled man‐ agers in soccer, clearly still has the magic touch.
A 4‐3 win over West Ham on Saturday was Palace's fourth vic‐ tory in six matches since the ar‐ rival of Hodgson. With it, the team moved onto 40 points — the number long associated with being the safety mark in Eng‐ land's top‐flight.
Surely, Palace is safe, given it is 11 points clear of the relegation zone. Hodgson, it seems, was an inspired appointment.
"The sword has been removed from my head, it's been removed from the players' heads," Hodg‐ son said.
"We will keep the sword where it is as far as we're concerned, be‐ cause we like to win games."
Unlike in the painful final days of Hodgson's predecessor, Patrick Vieira, Palace is scoring goals again, with this swashbuck‐ ling performance coming soon after a 5‐1 win at Leeds.
The goals conceded against West Ham were from corners, signifying that this could have been a much more cleaner win for Palace.
Palace recovered from going be‐ hind to Tomas Soucek's ninth‐ minute opener by scoring three goals in a 15‐minute span by the 30th, through Jordan Ayew, Wil‐ fried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp.
Michail Antonio reduced the deficit, Eberechi Eze stroked home a penalty to restore the two‐goal cushion for Palace, and Nayef Aguerd bundled in West Ham's third goal to set up a tense finish at Selhurst Park.
STYLISH BRIGHTON
A 6‐0 thrashing of Wolverhamp‐ ton put the smiles back on the faces of Brighton's players.
It has been a tough few days for the south‐coast club, which was defeated on penalties by Man‐ chester United in the FA Cup semifinals last weekend and lost at Nottingham Forest in the league in a weary display three days later.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi rang the changes and they worked, with the team going 4‐0 ahead after 39 minutes and adding two more after the break. Deniz Undav, Danny Welbeck and Pascal Gross all scored twice.
Brighton stayed in eighth place but moved two points behind Tot‐ tenham in fifth, and has two games in hand. Finishing fifth or sixth would secure a Europa League qualification place, with Brighton seeking to play in Eu‐ rope for the first time in its 122‐ year history.
"It is an exciting time," De Zerbi said. "We want to achieve our tar‐ gets. We are fighting. Results are not everything in football, the style and DNA is important. But if we deserve to achieve our target, we have to achieve it."
FOREST COLLAPSE
Nottingham Forest conceded in the fourth minute of stoppage time to lose at Brentford 2‐1 and miss a chance to make a big leap away from the relegation zone.
Leading 1‐0 until the 82nd minute, Forest let in an equalizer in the 82nd minute to Ivan Toney — his 20th league goal — before substitute Josh Dasilva grabbed a winner that was only con‐ firmed after a long VAR check for offside.
Forest remained one point above the relegation zone and has four games left, including against Southampton.
"We have to stick together with the players more than ever now after a result like that," Forest manager Steve Cooper said.