Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/373141
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 AUGUST 2014 50 Sport FOOTBALL Football results and fixtures Download the MaltaToday App now England - Premier League Burnley - Manchester Utd. ............... 0-0 Manchester C. - Stoke City ................ 0-1 Newcastle United - Crystal Palace ..... 3-3 Queens Park Rangers - Sunderland .. 1-0 Swansea City - West B. Albion .......... 3-0 West Ham United - Southampton ..... 1-3 Everton - Chelsea ............................ 3-6 Today 14:30 Aston Villa - Hull City 14:30 Tottenham H. - Liverpool 17:00 Leicester City - Arsenal Italy - Serie A ChievoVerona - Juventus ................. 0-1 Roma - Fiorentina ........................... 2-0 Today 18:00 AC Milan - Lazio 18:00 Atalanta - Hellas Verona 20:45 Cesena - Parma 20:45 Genoa - SSC Napoli 20:45 Palermo - Sampdoria 20:45 Sassuolo - Cagliari 20:45 Torino - Inter 20:45 Udinese - Empoli Germany - Bundesliga Augsburg - B. Dortmund .................. 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen - Hertha Berlin ..... 4-2 Hamburger SV - Paderborn .............. 0-3 VfB Stuttgart - FC Cologne ................ 0-2 Werder Bremen - Hoffenheim .......... 1-1 Wolfsburg - Eintracht Frankfurt ........ 2-2 Schalke 04 - Bayern Munich ............ 1-1 Today 15:30 Mainz 05 - Hannover 96 17:30 Freiburg - B. Monchengladbach Spain - Liga BBVA Getafe - Almeria .............................. 1-0 Valencia - Malaga ........................... 3-0 Athletic Bilbao - Levante.................. 3-0 Cordoba - Celta Vigo ........................ 1-1 Atltico Madrid - Eibar ....................... 2-1 Espanyol - Sevilla ............................ Late Today 19:00 Villarreal - Barcelona 21:00 Deportivo LaCoruna - R. Vallecano 21:00 Real sociedad - Real Madrid 23:00 Elche - Granada France - Ligue 1 Marseille - Nice ............................... 4-0 Monaco - Lille ................................. 1-1 Caen - Rennes ................................ 0-1 Lens - Reims ................................... 4-2 Lorient - Guingamp ......................... 4-0 Nantes - Montpellier ....................... 1-0 Toulouse - Evian T. Gaillard .............. 1-0 Today 14:00 Bordeaux - Bastia 17:00 Metz - Lyon 21:00 Paris S. Germain - Saint Etienne Juventus make winning start Roma defeat Fiorentina 2-0 JUVENTUS made a winning start to the defence of their Serie A title with a 1-0 success at Chievo which failed to ref lect their dominance in Verona. An own goal by goalkeeper Franceso Bardi in the sixth minute of the game was ultimately all that was between the two sides at the Stadio Bentegodi, but new Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri could draw many positives from his side's performance. Kingsley Coman put in a stirring performance on his debut, with Arturo Vidal also showing no ill-effects of a knee injury which had seen him miss most of pre- season. The defending champions were straight on to the front foot, with Paul Pogba sending the first shot wide of the Chievo goal. A corner then led to them open- ing the scoring, with Carlos Tevez swinging the ball to the far post where Martin Caceres headed against a combination of Chris- tian Biraghi and Bardi with the ball ricocheting into the goal. Five minutes later, a determined run from Pogba led to the ball falling out to Claudio Marchisio, whose shot from 20 yards just spun over the crossbar. Vidal saw his first chance of the game saved in the 16th minute, with Bostjan Cesar clearing his second effort off the line. From the resulting corner, Vidal hit the near post as Juve closed in on a second goal. Tevez then hit the crossbar in the 42nd minute from Stephan Li- chtsteiner's cross and the bar was rattling again just a few minutes later when Caceres rose to meet a corner. Juve's pressure persisted in the second half, with the livewire Coman curling a shot just wide of the far post. The 18-year-old was showing no signs of nerves on his debut follow- ing a summer switch from Paris St Germain and he was given a stand- ing ovation, even by a large section of Chievo fans, when he left the field to be replaced by Fernando Llorente midway through the sec- ond half. Llorente nearly made an imme- diate impact on the game when he had a shot pushed round the post by Bardi. Juve were almost made to pay for wasting so many chances when Chievo's moment came in the 77th minute. Maxi Lopez suddenly found him- self with the ball at his feet just eight yards from goal and with only Gianluigi Buffon to beat, but he slipped slightly when shooting and the Italy goalkeeper fulfilled his only duty of the evening, mak- ing the save low to his left to help preserve the points. In the other match, Roma defeat- ed Fiorentina 2-0. Roma dominated the first half and thanked Morgan De Sanctis for denying Fiorentina an equaliser in this 2-0 victory. The Giallorossi were under pres- sure this season and considered by many to be favourites for the Scu- detto. Douglas Maicon, Leandro Castan, Federico Balzaretti and Kevin Strootman were sidelined, so Kostas Manolas was thrown straight into the back four with fellow new buys Davide Astori and Ashley Cole. Juan Guillermo Cuad- rado was suspended for the Viola with Giuseppe Rossi and Marko Marin sidelined, so youngsters Khouma Babacar and Josh Brillan- te were given surprise starts. Roma had won their last four Serie A meetings with Fiorentina, while only one of their previous 13 encounters had ended in a draw. Ex-Giallorossi star Rodrigo Taddei was in the stands with the support- ers. Daniele De Rossi and Juan Manuel Vargas drilled wide early on, while a Mario Gomez effort was charged down and Francesco Totti slipped during a volley. Juan Manuel Iturbe was brought down on the edge of the box and curled the free kick over the bar. Roma were more attacking and broke through just shy of the half- hour mark. Radja Nainggolan started the move and finished it, getting on to the rebound when Norberto Neto parried a Gervinho strike at the near post. Gervinho wasted another op- portunity and Neto got fingertips to a dangerous cross. Fiorentina were being over-run, so Vincenzo Montella threw on Josip Ilicic for Brillante. Totti fired over at the end of a well-worked team move, while Ili- cic and Borja Valero aimed straight at Morgan De Sanctis. Gervinho went on a slalom through defenders until eventually his shot was charged down, then the Ivorian was denied by Neto standing tall when one-on-one. Fiorentina threatened an equal- iser on the hour, as an Ilicic free kick was fingertipped on to the bar by De Sanctis. Moments later the veteran goalkeeper performed another fantastic save to deny Ba- bacar from close range. Joaquin hit the side-netting, as Fiorentina created more in five minutes than the previous hour. Manolas impressed on his Serie A debut until he began suffering from cramp. The Viola continued to push Ro- ma back in the final stages and De Sanctis sprinted outside the area to clear from Ilicic. Just as they were hanging on, Gervinho sprung the offside trap, held off his marker and waltzed round the goalkeeper to deposit Roma's second goal into an empty net. The impressive Nainggolan provided the assist.