European roundup: Sevilla draw with Barça as Milan clubs reveal new stadium

Second-placed Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw by Barcelona, a result that helped Real Madrid to open a five-point lead at the top of La Liga.

Playing under heavy rain, a much-improved Barcelona desperately tried to find a winner after Ronald Araújo drew them level from a corner in the 45th minute but they were thwarted by an equally determined Sevilla, who were reduced to 10 men after Jules Koundé was shown a straight red card in the 64th minute.

Sevilla went ahead after Papu Gómez latched on to an Ivan Rakitic corner kick and fired home a low strike. Barça are seventh in the standings with 28 points from 18 games, 15 points behind the leaders Real Madrid.

“I honestly think that today we lost two points,” Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez told reporters. “We played better and deserved to win.

“We were unlucky. They score in a set piece play but we had many more opportunities. The result, a draw away against a great team like Sevilla, is not bad. But it is a point that is not enough for us as we are trying to move up in contention. We let this win slip away from our hands.”

Villarreal rose to ninth place with a comprehensive 5-2 victory against Alavés, with the talisman Gerard Moreno and Boulaye Dia both scoring twice.

After falling behind 2-0, Alavés levelled the scores through Pere Pons and the former Newcastle striker Joselu but Dia and Yéremy Pino extended the lead for Villarreal, before Moreno got his second of the night in the 88th minute.

The Juventus winger Federico Bernardeschi ended a 43-match goal drought in Serie A to cap a 2-0 win against Cagliari that lifted the Turin club to fifth place.

The Italy winger drilled a shot into the far corner in the 83rd minute to celebrate his first league goal since 26 July 2020, a run of 513 days. It came after Moise Kean headed home the opener in the first half to set Juve on course for a victory that extends second-bottom Cagliari’s winless league run to 11 matches.

The Old Lady climbed into fifth place on 34 points, registering their fourth clean sheet in the past five league outings in the process.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side can now enjoy a two-week winter break but when they return in 2022 Juve face league clashes with Napoli, Roma and Milan in January, before facing Atalanta on 12 February.

A new stadium inspired by the design of Milan’s Duomo cathedral will become the new home of Milan and Internazionale, replacing the 95-year-old Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

The project named ‘The Cathedral’ was unveiled on Tuesday and will be run by Populous, the architecture firm behind London grounds such as Wembley Stadium, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Inspired by two of Milan’s most famous buildings, the Duomo di Milano and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the new stadium will be set in a pedestrian-only area with more than 110,000 square metres of green areas.

A final project is expected to be presented in 2022 and the new ground is expected to have a capacity of around 65,000, a reduction from the current 80,000-seat arena which is also known as San Siro.

“The new San Siro will be the most beautiful stadium in the world for its strong identity and recognisability. An attractive arena, accessible and sustainable for the city of Milan that will facilitate the growth of the clubs and their global competitiveness,” said the Milan president, Paolo Scaroni.

Images of the planned project show the new stadium will be constructed adjacent to the current San Siro, while the old ground will be mostly demolished but remain part of the new stadium district.

Meanwhile, Salernitana will be kicked out of Serie A if they do not find a new owner by 31 December, the Italian Football Federation president, Gabriele Gravina, said on Tuesday.

The team from Salerno were promoted from Serie B for the first time in 23 years last season but their owner, Claudio Lotito, already owned another Serie A team, Lazio.

Ownership of multiple teams in the same division is against league rules and control of the club was handed to a trust to find a new buyer. However, they have yet to succeed with 10 days to go until the agreed deadline.

“There won’t be any let-offs when it comes to the 31 December deadline for the sale of Salernitana,” Gravina said after a meeting of the federation council. “If there are not any new developments, Salernitana are out.”

Serie A made a request to the FIGC last week to keep Salernitana in the division until the end of the season while they try to find a buyer after they failed to receive suitable offers.

Salernitana are bottom of the league with eight points from 18 games, and did not travel for their game against Udinese on Tuesday after the local health authority banned them from travelling because of positive Covid-19 cases in the squad.

However, the game was controversially not postponed by Serie A because according to them the Salerno club still had enough available players in their squad for the fixture to go ahead. Udinese were awarded a 3-0 win.

Elsewhere, the Genoa coach Andriy Shevchenko claimed the second league point of his tenure in his seventh game as the 18th-placed side surprisingly held Atalanta to a 0-0 draw.

The Bergamo side, who are fourth, mustered 17 shots to Genoa’s one, but could not find a way past the goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu and saw their lead over fifth-placed Juve cut to four points.