IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Late double gives Juve Cup draw with 10-man Inter

ROME: Late goals from Alessandro Del Piero and Jean Alain Boumsong earned Juventus a 2-2 draw at 10-man Inter Milan on Wednesday in the first leg of the Italian Cup quarterfinal.

Argentine striker Julio Cruz headed the Serie A leader in front nine minutes after the break and turned in a cross from Brazilian winger Cesar in the 74th to double the lead.

Del Piero pulled one back for Juve in the 79th and French defender Boumsong, who is expected to leave Turin in the transfer window, leveled the score with a header five minutes from time.

Earlier, holder AS Roma drew 1-1 at Sampdoria.

Chelsea to face Spurs in League Cup final

LONDON: Holder Chelsea will meet London rival Tottenham Hotspur in next month's League Cup final at Wembley Stadium after beating Everton 1-0 in the second leg of its semifinal at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

Chelsea, holding a 2-1 first-leg lead, wrapped up an evenly balanced tie after 69 minutes when Joe Cole scored with a brilliant strike after a long raking pass from Florent Malouda.

Israeli Grant, who took over from Jose Mourinho in September, has now led Chelsea to a major final in his first season in charge as has Spurs' Spanish coach Juande Ramos.

Atalanta stuns AC Milan to take sixth place

ROME: Atalanta came from behind to beat AC Milan 2-1 in Bergamo on Wednesday and moves up to sixth place in Serie A.

The European champion struck first when Atalanta's Cristiano Doni deflected a Gennaro Gattuso volley into his own net in the 16th minute.

Fernando Tissone slotted in the winner in the 68th after Simone Inzaghi had drawn Milan keeper Zeljko Kalac off his line and served the Argentine midfielder.

The defeat is a blow to Milan's bid to recover from a poor start and reach the top four to qualify for the Champions League.

It dropped to 10th with 24 points from 17 games and remains 25 points behind leader Inter Milan after playing the first of three games in hand.

Cricket

Tendulkar century lifts Indians over Aussies

ADELAIDE, Australia: Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar posted a fairy-tale century to lift his side toward a challenging total on the first day of the fourth and final Test against Australia yesterday.

In what seems certain to be his last Test on Australian soil, Tendulkar shook off a personal hoodoo at Adelaide Oval to score his 39th Test hundred and keep alive his side's hopes of squaring the series.

After captain Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to bat, the tourists were 309 for five at stumps, with Tendulkar undefeated on 124 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on six.

Several of his teammates squandered promising starts, but Tendulkar was rarely troubled by the Australian bowlers.

Figure Skating

Savchenko, Szolkowy defend European title

ZAGREB: Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy easily retained their pairs title at the European figure skating championships on Wednesday.

The duo dominated the day's free program and finished with a total of 202.39 points after taking a commanding lead in Tuesday's short program.

Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the silver medal with 169.41 points, while Russia's Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov finished third on 167.25 points.

The Russian pair overtook Ukraine's Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov, who had been third after the short program.

(China Daily 01/25/2008 page24)