Lazio saw two penalties saved but still managed to rout 10-man Sassuolo 6-2 to remain top of Serie A on Tuesday. Espanyol suffered a shock loss at fourth-tier Sestao River in the Spanish Cup, with its coach quickly paying the price, while Premier League champion Arsenal was beaten by fourth-tier Fleetwood Town in a penalty shootout in the English League Cup.
Elversberg and Mainz were dumped out of the German Cup by second-division teams but Leipzig narrowly avoided humiliation at third-tier Rot-Weiss Essen. Sassuolo goalkeeper Stefano Turati saved two penalties but couldn’t prevent his team from falling to a hefty loss.
Sassuolo was already 3-1 down when midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt was shown a straight red card in the 31st minute for a horror tackle on Mattia Zaccagni, who was fortunate to escape without serious injury.
Romano Floriani Mussolini, the great-grandson of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, had scored Lazio’s third goal. Sebastiano Esposito managed to pull one back but Zaccagni restored Lazio’s two-goal advantage on the stroke of halftime. Tijjani Noslin scored twice in the second half, while Turati stopped spotkicks from Zaccagni and Davide Frattesi. Lazio moved three points clear of Inter Milan, which visits bottom club Venezia.
Roma needed two late goals to beat Cagliari 4-2 and move back to within four points of Lazio. It was Cagliari’s third straight loss, following an impressive start to the season.
Como also left it late, with all its goals coming after 80 minutes, to secure a 3-1 win at Torino.
Espanyol coach fired immediately after Spanish Cup embarrassment Espanyol coach Manolo Gonzalez was fired less than two hours after his side lost 4-3 at Sestao River, after extra time, in the first round of the Spanish Cup. Agencies