AC Milan canter to victory over struggling Udinese

Udine, Apr. 13: Two goals right before halftime put visiting AC Milan on its way to a comfortable 4-0 win over Udinese in Serie A on Friday and extended the home side’s losing streak to four matches.

Udinese is on its worst run since the end of the 2022-23 season, when it also lost four in a row. It remains in 11th place.

The win left Milan in ninth, one point behind Fiorentina, but it will worry about an injury to goalkeeper Mike Maignan, who was taken off on a stretcher after colliding with teammate Alex Jiménez. Rafael Leao’s superb strike from 18 meters was quickly followed by Strahinja Pavlovic’s glancing header from a corner on the stroke of halftime.

Udinese was forced to chase the game in the second half and Milan took advantage of gaps that opened up.

Theo Hernández added a third in the 74th minute when he started a sweeping move in his own half and finished it off with an unstoppable shot.

Substitute Tammy Abraham’s superb cross led to a fourth from Tijjani Reijnders 10 minutes from time.

Similarly, in Spanish La liga, Valencia beat Sevilla 1-0 to extend its unbeaten run to six games and 

leapfrog its rival into 12th place in La Liga on Friday.

The win came courtesy of a Javier Guerra strike in first-half stoppage time and followed the 2-1 win against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium last week.

However, the result in front of 46,000 fans at Mestalla Stadium was a bitter one for Sevilla, which in the first half had a goal disallowed and a penalty award rescinded after a video review.

“It’s very easy to analyze the match,” said Ørjan Nyland, Sevilla’s Norwegian goalkeeper. “The disallowed goal should have given us the chance to go one-nil up. Then the uncalled penalty ends with a goal in our box. They scored despite doing very little in the first half, with the only chance they had. We have to score as well — we had opportunities to do so in the first half.”

The result lifted Valencia one point above Sevilla, which has lost four games in a row.

Likewise, in French League 1, A goal in each half from Keito Nakamura gave Reims an historic 2-0 win at Lens in Ligue 1 on Friday.

It was Reims' first league win against Lens since 1977 and a personal triumph for the Japanese winger. Nakamura got the first after 33 minutes when he side-footed home from close range.

Nhoa Sangui did the hard work for the clincher, three minutes from time, taking the ball the length of the field before laying it off to Nakamura to curl the ball in from an angle.

Lens was unfortunate to leave empty handed in a match where it had most of the possession and chances and where Reims goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf was elected man of the match.

The result lifted Reims out of the relegation playoff spot and into 14th. Lens was ninth.

Meanwhile, in German Bundesliga, Xavi Simons scored twice as Leipzig weathered a late comeback to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 in the Bundesliga on Friday and win away from home for the first time this year.

All three goals came from outside the box in a display that put Leipzig's recent bad away run to bed and lifted it into fourth place, equal on points with the team above it, Eintracht Frankfurt.

Leipzig's last away win was on Dec. 7, a run of seven winless matches.

Loïs Openda got the scoring started after 11 minutes. Wolfsburg lost possession in front of its own penalty box and Openda rifled a low shot inside the far post.

A defensive mishap led to a similar second 15 minutes later. Leipzig took possession when a defender slipped and Xavi Simons made space for himself on the edge of the box and his low shot beat the goalkeeper in the exact same place.

The third in the second half was the pick of the bunch. Baku teed up Simons nicely and the Dutch international side-footed in a sublime curler from 25 meters out.

Kilian Fischer pulled a goal back for Wolfsburg — becoming the 16th different player to score for the club this season, a club record — and Andreas Skov Olsen brought the home side right back into the game with 16 minutes left.

But it could not find an equalizer and it remains in 12th place, having lost four games in a row.(AP)