Belgium's Lukaku doubt for England clash, says Martinez

Inter Milan warmed up for their Champions League semi-final showdown with AC Milan with an entertaining 4-2 win over Sassuolo on Saturday while their city rivals floundered 2-0 at Serie A strugglers Spezia.

A Romelu Lukaku brace on his 30th birthday, a further strike from Lautaro Martinez and an unfortunate Ruan Tressoldi own goal were enough for Inter to claim a seventh straight win in all competitions and move level on 66 points with second-placed Juventus.

"The coach told us the game was a match-point for the top four, and we're in good shape as we've been winning a lot of games recently," said Lukaku to Sky Sport.

"We can still win two trophies and on Tuesday we have a very difficult match against the team that won the league last season."

Inter hold a 2-0 lead over Milan ahead of Tuesday's second leg and Simone Inzaghi's side look almost certain to reach their first Champions League final since they last won it in 2010.

Their chances of qualifying for next season's edition of Europe's top club competition were also greatly improved by Saturday's win, which came after top four rivals Lazio, Milan and Atalanta all dropped points.

Inter are five points ahead of fifth-placed Milan but after looking like they were going to cruise to the win they didn't end up having it their own way.

Lukaku put Inter ahead with a rasping effort shortly before the break after both Domenico Berardi and Joaquin Correa both had goals ruled out for offside.

Ten minutes after the restart Tressoldi headed Raoul Bellanova's cross into his own net and the match seemed over three minutes later when Martinez's effort was deflected in again by Tressoldi.

Headers from Matheus Henrique and Davide Frattesi pulled Sassuolo back into the game until Lukaku finally sealed the points with a fine low finish with two minutes remaining.

Przemyslaw Wisniewski and Salvatore Esposito struck their first Serie A goals in the final 15 minutes to sink Milan and give Spezia their first win in two months.

'Not good enough' 
Leonardo Semplici's team are still in the relegation zone but Saturday's win moves them level on 30 points with Verona, who sit one place above the bottom three and host Torino on Sunday.

Next weekend Spezia travel to Lecce who are just two points above the drop zone in 16th following their 2-2 draw at Lazio on Friday night.

"It's a goal I've dreamed about since I was a child, I used to talk to a good friend of mine who is a big Milan fan and I'd always tell him that I'd score against them," said Esposito to DAZN.

"These are big points for Spezia... we never lost faith, otherwise you'd never see performances like the one today."

Stefano Pioli's Milan team have won three times in their last 11 league matches and Saturday's defeat was their 10th of a strange season in which their league title defence was de facto over by February.

"Tonight was not good enough... Tuesday we have another battle. We've had a lot of trouble with these kinds of matches and it's difficult to explain why," said Milan defender Simon Kjaer.

"In our line of work you need to mentally separate the matches you play because the match we played on Wednesday and today's were completely different. We need to remove this one from our minds and get back to work."

Spezia's win means Salernitana will have to wait for mathematical safety, although they should stay up after Antonio Candreva shot them to a 1-0 win over Atalanta in the day's early game.

Under a torrential downpour in southern Italy Candreva won the match for Salernitana in the 93rd minute with a powerful low drive from the edge of the area.

Salernitana are eight points above Spezia with three games remaining in the season, while Atalanta are seventh and seven points from the Champions League positions.
 

Portugal finished their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a 100-percent record by beating Iceland 2-0 on Sunday, after Serbia booked their place at next year's finals in Germany and Romelu Lukaku scored four goals for Belgium.

Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta netted the goals for Roberto Martinez's Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo not on the scoresheet, to end with 10 wins from 10 matches in Group J.

The 2016 winners will be among the favourites for the title in what could be the 38-year-old Ronaldo's last major tournament.

Slovakia finished eight points behind Portugal in the second qualifying place after a 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica.

Luxembourg, who will head into the play-offs, were a further five points adrift after closing out an impressive group-stage showing with a 1-0 success in Leichtenstein.

Earlier Sunday, Serbia qualified for the first time as an independent nation, after four previous failures to get to the main event, with a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria.

The Serbs finish second in Group G behind Hungary who snuffed out any hopes Montenegro had of progressing by beating them 3-1 in Budapest.

"The players showed a mentality of not giving up, believing in themselves," said Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic.

"It's a big day for Serbian football. Serbia is finally at the European Championship.

"I congratulate my boys, who fought until the end and believed. We are happy and satisfied."

Centre-back Milos Veljkovic put Serbia ahead in the 17th minute before substitute Georgi Rusev levelled for Bulgaria in the 59th.

Ten minutes later Kiril Despodov put the visitors ahead but Srdjan Babic equalised eight minutes from time to ensure Serbia would become the 17th team to qualify for Euro 2024.

Montenegro needed Serbia to lose to have any hope of taking their place in Germany but also needed to win against the Hungarians who have eased impressively through qualifying.

Slobodan Rubezic put Montenegro ahead on 36 minutes but Hungary hit back i the second half with two goals in three minutes from Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai before Zsolt Nagy rounded off the win in added time.

Lukaku on fire 

PHOTO: AFP

Lukaku scored four goals as Belgium finished with a 5-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan.

Roma striker Lukaku extended his record tally of international goals for Belgium to 83, with all of his goals coming in a remarkable first half in Brussels.

He opened the scoring in the 17th minute by converting a Jeremy Doku cross, before Eddy Israfilov was shown a second yellow card seven minutes later to leave the Azeris with a mountain to climb.

Lukaku fired home shortly afterwards and then headed in Wout Faes' delivery to complete a hat-trick.

He rounded off his scoring spree of four goals in 20 minutes before being replaced by Lois Openda at half-time.

The Belgians took their foot off the gas in the second period but Leandro Trossard added a fifth in the 90th minute from another Doku assist.

Belgium finished top of Group F, one point clear of Austria, with both having wrapped up qualification with matches to spare.

Sweden ended a miserable campaign, in which they failed to qualify for a European Championship for the first time since 1996, with a 2-0 win over Estonia in the other game in the group.

Gavi injured 

PHOTO: AFP

Barcelona star Gavi limped off with a nasty knee injury in Spain's 3-1 victory against Georgia which secured top spot in Group A above Scotland.

The 19-year-old was tackled from behind in the first half, buckling the knee that had his weight on it, before leaving the pitch in tears.

"This is a very tough and very difficult moment," said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente.

"For the (Spanish football) federation, for me, for his friends. But above all for him and for his club.

"We're destroyed. Football is a risk sport and this is the ugly part of our sport."

Goals from Robin Le Normand and Ferran Torres and a Luka Lochoshvili own goal helped Spain past a spirited Georgia, who drew level at 1-1 early on through Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Already-qualified Scotland needed to beat Norway and hope for Spain to slip up to snatch first place, but were held to a dramatic 3-3 draw at Hampden Park.

 Juventus have been ordered to close part of their stadium for their next home Serie A match against Napoli by an Italian sports judge after Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku was racially abused during Tuesday's Coppa Italia semi-final.

The Tribuna Sud section of Juve's Allianz Stadium will be closed for their game against Napoli on April 23 after racist chants were heard coming from that area during the 1-1 first leg draw against Inter.

"The supporters of Juventus occupying the first tier of the sector known as the 'tribuna sud', during the 35th and 49th minutes of the second half shouted vulgar and insulting choruses and shouts of racial discrimination against the player of Internazionale Romelu Lukaku," a Serie A statement said.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that Juventus have banned two fans from their stadium after video footage of the incident went viral.

Argentina and Nigeria will be battling it out for a last-16 spot of Group D in the World Cup at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg.

Argentina are currently enduring their longest winless run in a first-round World Cup group stage in history. Nigeria, on the other hand, has an advantage over Argentina in terms of points but has lacked consistently so far in the Group Stage. Nigeria are second in their group and could qualify should they beat Argentina. The South American side, however, still have a final shot at making it to the last 16 if they are to beat Nigeria, and if Croatia managed to avoid defeat to Iceland.

The match is scheduled to start at 12:00 am in Bangladesh time. Let’s look at some of the statistics ahead of the thrilling encounter.

     Head-to-head:

1. In each of the last four World Cups Nigeria have qualified for (2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018) they have been drawn in the same group as Argentina. They were also in the same group in 1994.
2. The Super Eagles have lost all four of their previous World Cup games against Argentina, with all of those defeats by single-goal margins (1-0 in 2002 and 2010, 2-1 in 1994, 3-2 in 2014).
3. The Nigerians lost a group game to Paraguay at the 1998 tournament, so have been defeated in all five of their World Cup matches versus South American opposition.

    Nigeria

1. Nigeria's six World Cup wins have all come against European sides - they have never beaten opposition from another continent.
2. The only previous time the Super Eagles won back-to-back World Cup games was in 1998, when they defeated Spain and Bulgaria in their first two matches.
3. Victory would ensure Nigeria reach the knock-out stage for a second successive World Cup, and for the fourth time in six appearances overall.
4. Ahmed Musa is Nigeria's all-time top scorer at the World Cup with four goals - two against Iceland at this tournament, and two versus Argentina in 2014.

   Argentina

1. The only previous time Argentina have failed to win a game at a World Cup was in 1934, when the tournament was a straight knock-out. They selected an inexperienced, amateur squad, and lost 3-2 to Sweden in the first round.
2. They have never completed a first round group stage at a World Cup without at least one win.
3.  The Argentines are enduring their longest winless run in World Cup history (D2, L2), although that four-match streak includes the 2014 semi-final against the Dutch, which they won on penalties.
4. They last lost back-to-back World Cup games in 1994 (against Bulgaria and Romania). They have never lost consecutive games in the opening group stage.
5. Lionel Messi has failed to score with his last 22 shots in matches at World Cup finals.
6. But over the last two years he has scored 14 goals in 18 games for Argentina.

Argentina legend Diego Maradona wished Lionel Messi on his 31st birthday through an Instragram post. Maradona posted a picture of him with Messi and captioned the image with a short dedication that read `Happy Birthday, Leo Messi’ accompanied by two emoji gifts:  a cake and an arm with a closed fist, as a sign of strength.

Maradona Supported Messi on his last match against Croatia, where the Argentine playmaker came under intense criticism from his countrymen.

Messi’s team mates and friends also celebrated his birthday, he was presented with birthday cake by Argentina team-mates as some of them posted some pictures with Messi on social media. Sergio Aguero wished Messi a happy birthday with a post on his Instagram. The 31-year-old also took time out to meet some of his team-mates' children.

Argentina are gearing themselves up for their final group game against Nigeria which will be held tomorrow at 12 pm in Bangladesh time.