New Telegraph

Euro roundup: Juventus edge past Inter to boost Champions League hopes

• Juan Cuadrado seals 3-2 Derby d’Italia win for Andrea Pirlo’s side
• Lewandowski equals Müller Bundesliga scoring record

Juan Cuadrado scored twice as Juventus kept their Champions League qualification hopes alive with a 3-2 Derby d’Italia victory over Serie A champions Internazionale on Saturday despite spending most of the second half with 10 men.
The result lifted Andrea Pirlo’s side into fourth place with one game remaining, level on 75 points with Milan in third.
However, Napoli will knock them back into fifth if they beat  Fiorentina on Sunday and Milan will be assured of a top-four finish if they beat Cagliari, thanks to their better head-to-head record against Juve.
“It was a difficult game against a great team like Inter. Even with a man down we had to get the job done, make sacrifices, and I think that we got the result as a team,” Cuadrado told Sky Italia.
Both sides were awarded first-half penalties in a game dominated by VAR decisions. Cristiano Ronaldo scored on the rebound to put Juve ahead after his spot-kick was saved and Romelu Lukaku scored his own penalty for Inter soon after.
Juve regained the lead on the brink of half-time through a deflected Cuadrado strike but were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Rodrigo Bentancur picked up a second yellow.
Inter drew level through a Giorgio Chiellini own goal and Cuadrado responded with the winning penalty in the 88th minute. There was still time for Marcelo Brozovic to be sent off for the visitors for a second booking.
Atalanta secured Champions League qualification for a third consecutive season with a 4-3 win over Genoa on Saturday that left them second in Serie A.
Duván Zapata, Ruslan Malinovskyi and Robin Gosens were on target to give the visitors a comfortable lead by half-time against 14th-placed Genoa.
The hosts improved after the break as an Eldor Shomurodov strike and Goran Pandev penalty either side of a neat Mario Pasalic finish reduced the deficit, but Shomurodov’s second goal of the afternoon came too late as Genoa fell just short of an unexpected comeback.
In the Bundesliga Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski equalled Gerd Müller’s 49-year-old German league goal record when he scored a 26th-minute penalty in their 2-2 draw at Freiburg to take his season tally to 40 goals.
The Poland striker, who netted for the 11th straight game in all competitions and could have scored more, is already second on the all-time scorers list in the Bundesliga with 276 goals, behind only Mueller’s 365. He has one more chance to break Mueller’s 1971/72 record with one game left in the season.
“This is a great honour for me and also for the modern history of the Bundesliga in Germany,” Lewandowski said. “I am very happy to be part of this legendary record.”
The forward had paid tribute to Müller, revealing a shirt under his top with a picture of Müller and the writing “4ever Gerd” on it after scoring his goal. “What Gerd managed to achieve was amazing. I never thought I could come close and share a record with him,” Lewandowski said. “I am very, very proud. I still cannot believe what has happened. I will need some time to realise it.”
“We brought him to Bayern seven years ago on a free transfer [from Borussia Dortmund],” Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. “He became one of the most valuable players in our club history. I played with Gerd Müller and I know he has wished for this day for Robert. Both are strikers who stand out in the history of football.”
Champions League hopefuls  Eintracht Frankfurt crashed to a 4-3 defeat at relegated Schalke to all but dash their hopes of a top-four finish with one game left in the season.
*Courtesy: Reuters

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