AC Milan moves closer to title

     ROME, April 23 (Xinhua) -- AC Milan moved one step closer to the Serie A title with a 1-0 win at Brescia on Saturday.

    Robinho struck in the 82nd minute - just after the home side had hit the woodwork（木制品,木匠活） and started to put Milan under pressure - to clinch¹ the victory and take his side eight points clear of Inter² with four games of the season remaining.

    Inter leapfrogged Napoli into the second position after they beat Lazio 2-1 at home.

    Goals from Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto'o helped Inter Milan come from behind to win at the San Siro despite having goalkeeper Julio Cesar sent off in the first half.

    Inter went into the game in third but moved up to second and increased their lead over Lazio, a place behind them in the Serie A table before the fixture³, to six points to strengthen their Champions League claims.

    Mauro Zarate had given the visitors the lead in the first half, but Sneijder and Eto'o got the goals as Lazio also had Stefano Mauri sent off.

    Napoli slipped to third as their title hopes took another huge hit with a 2-1 defeat at Palermo.

    Despite going ahead after just two minutes with an Edison Cavani penalty, the visitors conceded goals to Federico Balzaretti and Cesare Bovo as they slumped⁴ to a second successive loss.

    Roma kept alive their faint hopes of a top-four finish in Serie A with a narrow 1-0 home triumph over Chievo.

    Simone Perrotta's first-half goal at the Stadio Olimpico was the difference between the two sides, with Roma twice denied by the woodwork in the second half.

    Roma, with striker Mirko Vucinic still struggling to find the back of the net, wasted a hatful of chances to extend their lead and were made to sweat before clinching⁵ three points.

    Roma's chances of finishing fourth were given a boost later in the day when Parma striker Carvalho Amauri scored in each half to help his side beat ten-man Udinese 2-0 at the Friuli Stadium.

    Udinese had Gokhan Inler sent off in the 22nd minute when he fouled⁶ Sebastian Giovinco and then made contact with the referee⁷. Amauri got his first in the 13th minute and sealed victory with another deep in stoppage time.

    Alessio Cerci's double earned a welcome return to winning ways for Fiorentina boss Sinisa Mihajlovic as they won 2-1 away to Cagliari.

    Cerci's strikes sandwiched Andrea Cossu's 46th-minute equaliser as all the goals game in a five-minute period around half-time to hand the Viola a first win in six games.

    Genoa secured a 4-2 win over relegation⁸-threatened Lecce which did their city rivals Sampdoria a favour in their relegation battle.

    Davide Di Michele put the visitors in front in the third minute, but Genoa hit back with Antonio Floro Flores' goal seven minutes later. Di Michele restored Lecce's advantage after half an hour, but Rodrigo Palacio brought the home team level again just before the break.

    Further goals from Palacio and Floro Flores in the second half sealed Genoa's second straight win at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to leave Lecce in danger at the bottomThe result allowed Sampdoria to move level on points with the Apulians in the battle for safety as they beat Bari 1-0.

    Cesena gave their relegation worries another boost by condemning⁹ Bologna to their fourth straight defeat as they won 2-0 at the Renato Dall'Ara Stadium.

    After two draws and a win in their past three outings, goals from Emanuele Giaccherni and Dominique Malonga at either end of the second half secured the visitors three more crucial points in their battle against the drop.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 clinch   

v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench

参考例句：

• Clinch the boards together.用钉子把木板钉牢在一起。
• We don't accept us dollars,please Swiss francs to clinch a deal business.我方不收美元，请最好用瑞士法郎来成交生意。

2 inter   

v.埋葬

参考例句：

• They interred their dear comrade in the arms.他们埋葬了他们亲爱的战友。
• The man who died in that accident has been interred.在那次事故中死的那个人已经被埋葬了。

3 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

4 slumped   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Sales have slumped this year. 今年销售量锐减。
• The driver was slumped exhausted over the wheel. 司机伏在方向盘上，疲惫得睡着了。

5 clinching   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的现在分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• Joe gets clinching evidence of the brains role when he dreams. 乔做梦时得到了大脑发生作用的决定性依据。 来自辞典例句
• Clinching, wrestling, pushing, or seizing, without attempting a throw or other technique. 抱，扭摔，推或抓而没有摔或其它的技术。 来自互联网

6 fouled   

v.使污秽( foul的过去式和过去分词 )；弄脏；击球出界；（通常用废物）弄脏

参考例句：

• Blue suit and reddish-brown socks!He had fouled up again. 蓝衣服和红褐色短袜！他又搞错了。
• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories. 整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。

7 referee   

n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人

参考例句：

• The team was left raging at the referee's decision.队员们对裁判员的裁决感到非常气愤。
• The referee blew a whistle at the end of the game.裁判在比赛结束时吹响了哨子。

8 relegation   

n.驱逐，贬黜；降级

参考例句：

• Liaoning team lost this game, is still deeply avoid relegation zone. 辽宁队本场失利后，仍然深陷保级区。 来自互联网
• In society, relegation is based on your income. 社会上的规类是以你的收入为基准。 来自互联网

9 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》