Baldanzi, Shomurodov to start vs Parma
Roma's upcoming Serie A fixture could be the right opportunity for the likes of Tommaso Baldanzi to make his mark.
The Italian midfielder is in fact favored to replace Paulo Dybala in Ranieri's starting line-up in the match against Parma.
With the Argentine expected to sit out Sunday's fixture, Baldanzi will feature in his place, starting behind Eldor Shomurodov.
The Uzbek striker will in fact play instead of Artem Dovbyk who has to rest due to recurring knee issues.
Gourna-Douath is also expected to start after making his debut for the Giallorossi last week against Venezia.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Club World Cup team guide – Juventus: A returning hero, the son of a legend, and a splash of pink
The 36-time Italian champions may not be at the peak of their powers, but have found a little more coherency since appointing Igor Tudor as head coach in March. The former Juventus defender will be aiming to add to the Old Lady's sprawling honours list, although the Turin side are not among the favourites… Follow the Club World Cup on The Athletic this summer… Not as good as they'd like to be after committing to spend a quarter of a billion (gross) on players last summer. Juventus fired Thiago Motta seven months into his first season as head coach, then last week parted with managing director of football Cristiano Giuntoli after achieving the absolute minimum; a fourth-place finish and Champions League qualification. It is now five years since Juventus last won Serie A and, unless something drastic happens, the drought could last long enough to match the nine-year barren run the club endured between the late '80s and early '90s. As the eighth-best eligible ranked team in the UEFA rankings. Former Super League partners Barcelona did Juventus a favour in spring 2024, knocking Napoli out of the Champions League in the round of 16 and therefore making it impossible for them to overtake Juventus in the rankings. Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was not happy and threatened to appeal because Juventus were serving a one-year ban from European competition at the time Barcelona knocked his own club out of the Champions League and the running for the Club World Cup. Soporific under Motta. Juventus drew 16 league games, the joint most in Europe's top five leagues with Osasuna in La Liga. There was little of the positional fluidity and slick football that had previously characterised his Bologna side. Instead, Juventus passed, passed and passed their fans to sleep. An injury crisis did not help Motta, nor did playing square pegs in round holes. His replacement Tudor has set the team up more coherently. Juventus have become more direct and aggressive in the Atalanta-esque system Tudor adopted to great success with Hellas Verona. Tudor was a member of those great Juventus teams from the turn of the century. The Croat was part of a defence featuring Gigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and later Fabio Cannavaro. It was up to them to keep their end of the bargain and protect Juventus' goal while Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero and then Pavel Nedved went up the other end and scored. A big personality, he played under Marcello Lippi and Carlo Ancelotti. This is his second spell at Juventus in a coaching role. He served as an assistant under Andrea Pirlo but struck out on his own at Verona, Marseille and Lazio where he proved more credible and successful. Gleison Bremer should have a higher profile. The Brazilian looks like the best centre-back in Serie A on his day and Juventus' season deteriorated after he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in October. Juventus' big names, Dusan Vlahovic, Nico Gonzalez and Teun Koopmeiners, are big in Italy, not elsewhere and did not perform to their ability this year, which is why Khephren Thuram is the player to follow. Son of Juventus legend and World Cup winner Lilian, his driving runs from midfield were increasingly hard for opponents to stop once he settled into his first Serie A campaign. Juventus' Next Gen team, an under-23 side registered in Italy's third division, has bridged the gap between youth team and first team football. While it's a shame that sacked sporting director Giuntoli decided to cash in on the work of his forebears, profiting on Dean Huijsen, Matias Soule, Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea, the star of the Next Gen scheme, Kenan Yildiz, is still at the club. Juventus' decision to give him the prestigious No 10 shirt shows how much they believe in the 20-year-old Turk, who was involved in 15 goals this season. They have one about only ever thinking about the team, how watching Juventus makes them a child again (a 'bambino') and defending the colours is their destiny (their 'destino'). Inter. That's why the Derby d'Italia in Serie A is between them and not Juventus and Milan. It is Italy's most poisonous rivalry. Inter fans long believed Juventus won things at their expense, taking refuge for their own shortcomings in conspiracies. When the Calciopoli scandal relegated Juventus in 2006, Inter not only felt vindicated, they benefited. One of the two titles revoked from Juventus was controversially assigned to Inter, who also signed Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from them. Nearly 20 years later, the hatred remains undiminished. Juventus originally played in pink before, in 1903, the team's first foreign player, a Brit by the name of Gordon Thomas Savage, brought some Notts County shirts back to Italy with him. Juventus changed colours and style, and have worn black and white stripes ever since, with some variations. The jersey Juventus will don at the Club World Cup incorporates pink into the default colour scheme made possible by Savage. Even though Juventus sold Huijsen, Soule et al a year ago, this team is in keeping with the true meaning of the club's name. It is based around youth and shows Juventus are moving with the times. Much has been made recently of how young Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are at the moment, and Juventus are no different. The average age of their team this season is 24 and 288 days. (All kick-offs ET/BST) (Top photos: Image Photo Agency, Marco Bertorello/Getty; design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
After a flawless fortnight in Paris, Sinner's eye-catching run at French Open ends in heartbreak
PARIS (AP) — After a flawless fortnight in Paris, Jannik Sinner was on the brink of capturing his first French Open title on Sunday after a dominant run on the clay courts of Roland-Garros. Facing defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, the top-ranked Italian was firmly in control. Sinner's deep groundstrokes, excellent service, heavy top spin, and subtle variations had worn down Alcaraz, who found himself 5-3 down and trailing 0-40 in the fourth set, and facing three match points. At that moment, it felt like the best of all possible worlds for the 23-year-old Sinner. But then the momentum swung. Alcaraz fought back, saved the first match point when Sinner sent a forehand long. On the second, Sinner missed a return. The third ended with Alcaraz winning a short baseline exchange. Sinner had just let his chance slip away. From there, Alcaraz produced one of the greatest comeback in Roland-Garros history to win the longest final ever played on the Parisian dirt — 5 hours and 29 minutes — 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2). 'It's an amazing trophy, so I won't sleep tonight very well, but it's okay,' Sinner said during the trophy ceremony. Exciting rivalry There is hardly anything between the two best players in tennis at the moment, who have now combined to win the last six Grand Slam titles and appear poised to build one of the sport's most compelling rivalries in the years ahead. Sunday's duel delivered a match of rare intensity, filled with punishing baseline rallies, exquisite drop shots, and brilliant passing shots — thrilling a packed Court Philippe-Chatrier. 'This one hurts' 'Obviously, this one hurts,' he said. 'There's not so much to say right now. But again, I'm happy with how we're trying to improve every day and put myself in these kinds of positions. It was a very high-level match, that's for sure. I'm happy to be part of it. But yeah, the final result hurts.' It was a particularly tough ending for Sinner, who had not dropped a set on his way to the final, including a dominant semifinal win over three-time French Open champion Novak Djokovic. Before facing Alcaraz, Sinner had never lost a Grand Slam final, winning his first three. A victory would have made him just the fifth man in the Open Era to win three consecutive major titles. 'I'm pretty sure you are going to be a champion, not once but many, many times,' Alcaraz told him during the trophy ceremony. 'It is a privilege to share the court with you in every tournament, making history with you.' 'Now it's my time to take something from the close people I have,' he said. 'As I've always said, before my career started, I never would've imagined finding myself in this position. It wasn't even a dream because it felt so far away — I wasn't even thinking about it. Now I find myself here, playing the longest final in the history of Roland-Garros. It hurts, yes, but on the other hand, you can't go on crying.' ___
Fox Sports
6 hours ago
- Fox Sports
After a flawless fortnight in Paris, Sinner's eye-catching run at French Open ends in heartbreak
Associated Press PARIS (AP) — After a flawless fortnight in Paris, Jannik Sinner was on the brink of capturing his first French Open title on Sunday after a dominant run on the clay courts of Roland-Garros. Facing defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, the top-ranked Italian was firmly in control. Sinner's deep groundstrokes, excellent service, heavy top spin, and subtle variations had worn down Alcaraz, who found himself 5-3 down and trailing 0-40 in the fourth set, and facing three match points. At that moment, it felt like the best of all possible worlds for the 23-year-old Sinner. But then the momentum swung. Alcaraz fought back, saved the first match point when Sinner sent a forehand long. On the second, Sinner missed a return. The third ended with Alcaraz winning a short baseline exchange. Sinner had just let his chance slip away. From there, Alcaraz produced one of the greatest comeback in Roland-Garros history to win the longest final ever played on the Parisian dirt — 5 hours and 29 minutes — 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2). 'It's an amazing trophy, so I won't sleep tonight very well, but it's okay,' Sinner said during the trophy ceremony. Exciting rivalry There is hardly anything between the two best players in tennis at the moment, who have now combined to win the last six Grand Slam titles and appear poised to build one of the sport's most compelling rivalries in the years ahead. Sunday's duel delivered a match of rare intensity, filled with punishing baseline rallies, exquisite drop shots, and brilliant passing shots — thrilling a packed Court Philippe-Chatrier. 'This one hurts' Reflecting on the match in his post-final press conference, Sinner tried to draw positives from a devastating loss. 'Obviously, this one hurts,' he said. 'There's not so much to say right now. But again, I'm happy with how we're trying to improve every day and put myself in these kinds of positions. It was a very high-level match, that's for sure. I'm happy to be part of it. But yeah, the final result hurts.' It was a particularly tough ending for Sinner, who had not dropped a set on his way to the final, including a dominant semifinal win over three-time French Open champion Novak Djokovic. Before facing Alcaraz, Sinner had never lost a Grand Slam final, winning his first three. A victory would have made him just the fifth man in the Open Era to win three consecutive major titles. 'I'm pretty sure you are going to be a champion, not once but many, many times,' Alcaraz told him during the trophy ceremony. 'It is a privilege to share the court with you in every tournament, making history with you.' Sinner, who will remain world No. 1, said he'll lean on his family and loved ones to recover from the loss. 'Now it's my time to take something from the close people I have,' he said. 'As I've always said, before my career started, I never would've imagined finding myself in this position. It wasn't even a dream because it felt so far away — I wasn't even thinking about it. Now I find myself here, playing the longest final in the history of Roland-Garros. It hurts, yes, but on the other hand, you can't go on crying.' ___ AP tennis: in this topic
