Old boy Higuain delivers Napoli Cup knockout for Juve
ROME: Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain scored twice to send former club Napoli crashing out of the Italian Cup semi- finals on a night of bitter emotions on Wednesday.
Napoli won the second leg 3-2 but it was little consolation after they had been soundly beaten 3-1 in the first match in Turin as Juventus moved into a final against Lazio.
Whistled and jeered throughout the 1-1 Serie A draw at the same San Paolo ground at the weekend, Argentine star Higuain responded in deadly fashion on Wednesday against the club he controversially quit in the summer.
When he opened the scoring in the 32nd minute with a right foot shot, Higuain couldn’t disguise his anger at his treatment, running to celebrate in front of the VIP box and Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis. Higuain made a gesture to the box, indicating that the Napoli chief was to blame for his departure.
The aggregate win gave Juventus a place in the Italian Cup final for the third successive year and on course for a Serie A and Champions League sweep. — AFP
Results on Wednesday
Borussia M’gladbach 1 Hertha Berlin 0 Mainz 2 RB Leipzig 3 VfL Wolfsburg 0 Freiburg 1 Augsburg 2 Ingolstadt 3 Darmstadt 0 Bayer Leverkusen 2
STANDINGS
( played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Bayern Munich 27 20 5 2 67 14 65 RB Leipzig 27 17 4 6 50 30 55 Hoffenheim 27 13 12 2 50 26 51 ------------------------------------------------------Bor Dortmund 27 14 8 5 58 28 50 ------------------------------------------------------Cologne 27 10 10 7 39 31 40 Hertha Berlin 27 12 4 11 35 34 40 ------------------------------------------------------Freiburg 27 11 5 11 35 47 38 Frankfurt 27 10 7 10 26 28 37 Bor M’gladbach 27 10 6 11 31 34 36 Bayer Leverkusen 27 10 5 12 42 43 35 Werder Bremen 27 10 5 12 42 46 35 Schalke 04 27 9 7 11 33 31 34 VfL Wolfsburg 27 8 6 13 26 38 30 Hamburg 27 8 6 13 26 50 30 Mainz 05 27 8 5 14 36 46 29 ------------------------------------------------------Augsburg 27 7 8 12 26 43 29 ------------------------------------------------------Ingolstadt 04 27 7 4 16 28 45 25 Darmstadt 98 27 4 3 20 17 53 15
Note:
Top three qualify directly for the Champions League group stage; fourthplaced side goes into play- off round. Teams ranked fifth and sixth qualify for the Europa League. The teams who finish 17th and 18th are relegated, but the side in 16th plays a two-legged play- off with the club which finishes third in the second division.