Captain Francesco Totti scored on his return from a month-long injury lay-off as Roma scraped a 3-2 win over Udinese to reduce the gap on leaders Juventus to 14 points on Monday
Earlier, third-placed Napoli had pulled level on points with Roma thanks to a 90th minute strike from Gonzalo Higauin which secured the points away to Torino.
However Roma restored their three-point cushion on Rafael Benitez’s side after a tense finale caused by Dusan Basta’s 80th minute header for the visitors.
Roma have reinforced their grip on second place, and with it the last automatic Champions League qualifying spot, but despite having a game in hand they remain 14 points adrift of Juventus, who had Andrea Pirlo to thank for an 89th minute winner in a tense finale at Genoa on Sunday.
Totti, meanwhile, welcomed his sixth goal of the season but told Sky Sport Italia: “It was nice to score but the important thing was to win this game to make sure we stay in front of Napoli. We have to defend second place.”
Coach Garcia, however, added: “That was the most difficult encounter at home in 15 or 16 games. We got the points but we made life difficult for ourselves.”
Totti enjoyed a dream return to the Olympic Stadium when he picked up the rebound from Gervinho’s close range shot following Miralem Pjanic’s delivery and drilled past teenage goalkeeper Simone Scuffet.
Gervinho finally looked back to top form and eight minutes later a run down the right flank allowed the Ivorian to square for Mattia Destro and although he had to round Scuffet the Italian found the net with a low angled strike.
Minutes later Antonio Di Natale tested De Sanctis with a curling shot which the keeper dived to parry.
The visitors finally reduced arrears six minutes into the second half when Totti was dispossessed in midfield and the ball found Giampiero Pinzi, who took a few touches before beating De Sanctis with a smart angled strike from the edge of the area.
The goal shook Roma, whose defence minutes later had to rely on the reflexes of De Sanctis to rush out and block Di Natale’s drive from close range.
At the other end Totti’s shot under pressure spun wide of Scuffet’s upright and then Gervinho bundled wide under pressure from Silvan Widmer.
Vaseilos Torosidis gave Roma a much-needed cushion when he carried the ball through Udinese’s defence to beat Scuffet with a low shot inside the keeper’s near post.
Roma looked to be heading for a comfortable win, but from a corner in the 80th minute De Sanctis had to pull off a one-handed save before seeing Basta’s shot from the rebound fly by him and into the net.
Roma spurned the chance to put the match beyond reach when Pjanic set up Alessandro Florenzi, who replaced Totti on 72 minutes, but the forward’s effort was over.
In Turin, Napoli’s last-gasp win came with controversy after claims that Higuain had fouled defender Kamel Glik before beating Daniele Padelli with a strike that crept under the ‘keeper’s body.
Torino coach Giampiero Ventura has had plenty of reason this season to complain about refereeing decisions, having lost both derbies against Juventus due to a goal which looked offside and a penalty that was not awarded.
He raged: “I feel embarrassed for my players. I’m not going to talk about the injustices we’ve suffered, we just want this season to finish as soon as possible.
“We should have 10 points more than we do have.”
Higuain brushed off the incident when he told Sky Sport Italia: “There was contact with Glik but he and I were both running fast.
“All I can do is celebrate the goal.”
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The specs: 2018 Maserati Ghibli
Price, base / as tested: Dh269,000 / Dh369,000
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 355hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.9L / 100km
if you go
The flights
Fly direct to Kutaisi with Flydubai from Dh925 return, including taxes. The flight takes 3.5 hours. From there, Svaneti is a four-hour drive. The driving time from Tbilisi is eight hours.
The trip
The cost of the Svaneti trip is US$2,000 (Dh7,345) for 10 days, including food, guiding, accommodation and transfers from and to Tbilisi or Kutaisi. This summer the TCT is also offering a 5-day hike in Armenia for $1,200 (Dh4,407) per person. For further information, visit www.transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike/
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh810,000
SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%20Supercharged%203.5-litre%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20400hp%0D%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20430Nm%0D%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%0D%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh450%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20Continental%3A%20From%20the%20World%20of%20John%20Wick%20
%3Cp%3ECreated%20by%3A%20Greg%20Coolidge%2C%20Shawn%20Simmons%2C%20Kirk%20Ward%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Mel%20Gibson%2C%20Colin%20Woodell%2C%20Mishel%20Prada%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLE
Price, base / as tested Dh274,000 (estimate)
Engine 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder
Gearbox Nine-speed automatic
Power 245hp @ 4,200rpm
Torque 500Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
Sweet%20Tooth
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJim%20Mickle%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EChristian%20Convery%2C%20Nonso%20Anozie%2C%20Adeel%20Akhtar%2C%20Stefania%20LaVie%20Owen%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How it works
1) The liquid nanoclay is a mixture of water and clay that aims to convert desert land to fertile ground
2) Instead of water draining straight through the sand, it apparently helps the soil retain water
3) One application is said to last five years
4) The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $7,000 to $10,000 per hectare
The specs
Engine: 3.6 V6
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Power: 295bhp
Torque: 353Nm
Price: Dh155,000
On sale: now
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
