Inter edge past Napoli in serie a clash
Milan: Lautaro Martinez's goal in the 92nd minute was what Inter Milan needed in a contest between the second and third placed clubs in Serie A. Inter, with 36 points from 18 matches, moved to within 5 points of second placed Napoli, who saw the gap to leaders Juventus widen to 9 points. The hosts were the bolder side in the first half here on Wednesday and appeared to have taken the lead in the 30th minute with a strike by Ivan Perisic, but the goal was disallowed for an offside, while Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly made a goal-line stop against Mauro Icardi to preserve the 0-0 heading into the break. Martinez, who came on with eight minutes left, broke the deadlock in stoppage time before Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne was sent off with a straight red card, apparently for dissent.
chelsea ride on hazard’s brace
London: Eden Hazard scored a brace to give Chelsea a 2-1 victory against Watford and lift the former champions back into the top four of the English Premier League (EPL) at the mid-point of the 2018-2019 season. The win brings Chelsea to 40 points, 2 ahead of fifth-place Arsenal, who drew 1-1 with Brighton & Hove Albion earlier on Wednesday. The sides looked set to head to the dressing rooms 0-0 until a minute into first-half stoppage time, when Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic stole the ball in midfield and found Hazard in scoring position for the 1-0. But the advantage lasted barely two minutes, as Roberto Pereyra beat Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga with a low blast from outside the area to level the score at 1-1. The deadlock continued until Watford keeper Ben Foster tackled Hazard in the box in the 58th minute and the Belgian international converted the penalty to put Chelsea up 2-1.
Modric wins Croatian sports award
Zagreb: The best football player in the world Luka Modric got his first Croatian Sportsman of the Year award while discus thrower Sandra Perkovic won her seventh Croatian Sportswoman of the Year title. Croatian sports daily newspaper Sportske Novosti was handing out the awards for the best man, woman and team for men and women for the 67th year in a row and this time the jury didn't have an easy task with a group of world and European champions among the candidates. However, the majority of the votes from 322 sports journalists that took part in the process went to the best footballer of the year and the discus queen who won the European champion title in 2018 for the fifth time in a row. Modric and Perkovic got 299 and 284 votes respectively.
Bulls beat Jaipur Pink Panthers in pkl
Kolkata: Bengaluru Bulls wrapped up their league campaign in style as they beat Jaipur Pink Panthers 40-32. Bengaluru Bulls topped the table in Zone A and once again it was Pawan Sehrawat who led their charge. Sehrawat scored 16 points and was ably supported by Rohit Kumar who chipped in with 5 crucial points. For Jaipur Pink Panthers, Deepak Niwas Hooda with 13 points top scored for Jaipur Pink Panthers and also reached the 700-raid point mark in the history of Pro Kabaddi League. It was a disappointing end of the league campaign for Jaipur Pink Panthers as they finished fifth in Zone A.
Kadhe gets wild card for Tata Open
Pune: National Championship runner-up and local player Arjun Kadhe was on Thursday awarded a wild card entry into the singles main draw of the Tata Open Maharashtra, the only ATP World Tour event India hosts. The 24-year old joins the country's top singles players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the main draw. The ATP 250 event begins from December 31 at the Balewadi Sports Complex. World No 6 Kevin Anderson, world number seven Marin Cilic and defending champion Gilles Simon (30) headline the singles field.