Balotelli leads Milan to 5th straight win

ROME: Mario Balotelli set a personal record with his 14th goal of the Serie A season and set up another score as AC Milan beat visiting Livorno 3-0 on Saturday for its fifth straight win.
Still, Milan remained five points behind city rival Inter Milan in the race for fifth place and the final Europa League berth, after Inter beat 10-man Parma 2-0.
In the 43rd minute at the San Siro, Balotelli scored with a textbook header from the center of the area following a cross from Kevin Constant.
Midfielder Adel Taarabt doubled Milan’s lead in the 51st after dribbling past a defender, and substitute Giampaolo Pazzini finished off in the 84th after taking a pass from Balotelli that left him with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Balotelli’s previous best output was 13 goals, with Manchester City in 2011-12, and City and Milan combined last season.
It was also Balotelli’s 18th goal in all competitions this season, another personal record, which should give the striker confidence entering the World Cup as Italy’s leader in attack.
Elsewhere, third-place Napoli was held to 1-1 at Udinese, while Torino and Lazio remained level eighth after a wild 3-3 draw that saw Ciro Immobile score his league-leading 20th goal.
Also, it was: Atalanta 1, Hellas Verona 2; Catania 2, Sampdoria 1; Chievo Verona 0, Sassuolo 1; and Genoa 1, Cagliari 2.
Later, league leader Juventus hosted Bologna and second-place Roma was at fourth-place Fiorentina.
In Parma, Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic stopped a penalty from Antonio Cassano by tipping it off the post in the 44th. The hosts were then reduced to 10 men when Italy international Gabriel Paletta picked up his second yellow card in first half added time for a foul on Rodrigo Palacio.
Defender Rolando put Inter ahead in the 48th with a header and Parma had more misfortune when Alessandro Lucarelli hit the crossbar with a header in the 55th.
Substitute Fredy Guarin sealed Inter’s victory by scoring on his first touch in the 89th with a shot from beyond the area.
In Udine, Jose Callejon gave Napoli the lead in the 39th with a volley and Bruno Fernandes equalized for Udinese in the 54th following a defensive error.
In Rome, Immobile thought he scored the winner for Torino in the 89th when he shot between two defenders but Antonio Candreva — a favorite of Italy coach Cesare Prandelli — equalized for Lazio four minutes into added time from close range.

Fulham lingers at bottom

In London, Fulham squandered an opportunity to escape the Premier League relegation zone on Saturday after going down 3-1 at London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Felix Magath’s improving side had won their two previous games and they reacted impressively after falling behind to a close-range Paulinho strike in the 35th minute, with Steve Sidwell equalising almost immediately.
However, second-half goals from Harry Kane and Younes Kaboul secured victory for Tim Sherwood’s Spurs, with Sidwell seeing a late penalty saved by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Defeat left Fulham two points from safety, ahead of a home game with Hull City next weekend.
“If we had got any points here, it would have been an extra point for us,” said Fulham manager Magath.
“We have to win our home games and I think we can manage it.”
Sixth-place Spurs closed to within four points of the Champions League places, although they have played a game more than both fourth-place Arsenal and fifth-place Everton.
With leaders Liverpool not in action until Sunday, when they visit Norwich, Chelsea can provisionally take over at the top of the table if they win at home to bottom club Sunderland in Saturday’s late game.
Fulham slipped one place to 19th after Cardiff City moved above them on goal difference by drawing 1-1 at home to Stoke City.
Marko Arnautovic gave Stoke the lead from the penalty spot in first-half injury time after Kim Bo-kyung was contentiously adjudged to have tripped Peter Odemwingie.
However, Peter Whittingham equalized with a penalty of his own after Steven Nzonzi tripped Fraizer Campbell, and Cardiff might even have won, only for a Juan Cala effort to be ruled out for offside.
Elsewhere, an ice-cool stoppage-time penalty by Wilfried Bony gave Swansea City a 2-1 victory at Newcastle United that took the Welsh club six points clear of the relegation zone.
Bony had earlier scored with a header to cancel out Shola Ameobi’s 23rd-minute opener for the home side.
Aston Villa spurned a chance to put clear daylight between themselves and the bottom three after being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Southampton that left Paul Lambert’s side five points above the drop zone.
In the day’s other fixture, a 59th-minute Mile Jedinak penalty saw Crystal Palace win 1-0 at West Ham United, completing a sequence of five successive top-flight wins for the first time since December 1992.