Inter and Palermo share points in eight-goal thriller

Soccer Betting Lines

02/01/2012 - Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Diego Milito scored four times for Inter Milan while Palermo got three goals from Fabrizio Miccoli in a 4-4 draw at the San Siro on Wednesday.

Andrea Mantovani started the scoring barrage in the 16th minute when he put Palermo in front. But Milito and Miccoli took over from there, with Milito leveling the contest six minutes later to make it 1-1 at halftime.

Miccoli restored the lead for the visitors by beating Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar at the far post in the 52nd minute, only for the Nerazzurri to come right back and answer from the penalty spot through Milito after Yuto Nagatomo was fouled inside the area by Palermo's Ezequiel Munoz.

Milito completed his hat trick just after the hour mark when he finished off a header from Esteban Cambiasso. But Miccoli responded when he tracked down a cross from Federico Balzaretti to nod the ball past Cesar from six yards.

Inter went back in front in the 68th minute when Milito netted his fourth goal with a bit of luck as Giampaolo Pazzini's scuffed shot deflected off the leg of the Argentina international and found the back of the net.

But with Inter poised to collect all three points, Miccoli finished off his own hat trick five minutes from time by racing on to a through ball from Josip Ilicic and slotting his shot past Cesar.

Inter has now claimed one point from its last two games after winning its previous seven, leaving the club eight points back of leaders Juventus.

Lazio 2, AC Milan 0

Rome, Italy - AC Milan missed out on a chance to move to the Serie A summit on Wednesday as the club sustained a 2-0 defeat to Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.

Juventus held a one-point lead on second-place Milan and the end of last weekend, but the Old Lady had its match with Parma postponed on Tuesday because of snow, giving the Rossoneri a chance to take over the top spot.

But the visitors failed to take advantage as Lazio scored twice in the final 15 minutes to claim the win and move to within four points of Milan.

Hernanes netted the first goal in the 76th minute after being set up by Tommaso Rocchi, who tallied a goal of his own five minutes from time to seal the win.

Cagliari 4, Roma 2

Cagliari, Italy - Thiago Ribeiro scored a goal in each half as Roma's five- game unbeaten streak came to an end on Wednesday with a 4-2 defeat at Cagliari.

Ribeiro scored in the sixth minute for Cagliari, but Roma responded with goals from Juan and Fabio Borini to take a 2-1 lead.

Mauricio Pinilla leveled the match at halftime with his first goal for the club, and Ribeiro put the hosts in front a few minutes after the break before Albin Ekdal put the result away two minutes into stoppage time with a close- range tap in.

Napoli 0, Cesena 0

Naples, Italy - Napoli's struggles continued on Wednesday as the club extended its winless streak to four games after a 0-0 home draw with relegation- battling Cesena.

Napoli now trails third-place Udinese by 11 points, with Cesena sitting in 19th place and three points from safety.

The hosts created the better chances throughout the match but were denied by some good goalkeeping from Cesena's Francesco Antonioli.

And Napoli was a bit unlucky in stoppage time not to claim all three points as Goran Pandev had a goal called back by referee Luca Banti seemingly for a foul in the build up.

Udinese 2, Lecce 1

Udine, Italy - Udinese gained ground on the Serie A leaders on Wednesday courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Lecce at the Stadio Friuli.

Michele Pazienza put the home side on the scoreboard inside of two minutes, with Lecce's David Di Michele answering back for his team midway through the opening half.

But Antonio Di Natale's 15th goal of the campaign came nine minutes before the break when Antonio Floro Flores played a square ball to the striker, who beat goalkeeper Massimiliano Benassi with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Udinese came close to adding to its lead in the second half, but still held on to move to within three points of Juventus at the top of the league.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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