David Beckham played for 76 effective minutes to help AC Milan beat Genoa 5-2 and rise to second in the Serie A Wednesday. Beckham made up the right side of an attacking trio with Marco Borriello and Ronaldinho, and went close to scoring in the first half but his long-range strike hit the side netting. Penalties from Ronaldinho and Klaas Jan Huntelaar, a brace by Borriello and an opportunist strike by Thiago Silva gave Milan the win, while Giuseppe Sculli and David Suazo scored for Genoa. Inter Milan remained top of the standings thanks to Mario Balotelli's early goal in a 1-0 win over Chievo Verona. Inter led with 42 points, eight more than Milan. Juventus was third with 33 after beating Parma 2-1. Also, it was: Atalanta 0, Napoli 2; Bari 2, Udinese 0; Catania 1, Bologna 0; Lazio 4, Livorno 1; Sampdoria 1, Palermo 1; and Siena 1, Fiorentina 5. Beckham made his mark in the third minute. He crossed to Borriello, but Genoa stopper Marco Amelia pushed away the striker's close shot. In the 13th, Amelia rescued Genoa by stopping Ronaldinho's weak penalty after Giuseppe Biava tripped Massimo Ambrosini. Genoa took the lead in the 25th through Sculli. Ronaldinho atoned for his earlier penalty miss in the 32nd by thumping the ball low past Amelia to draw Milan level after the goalkeeper brought down Ambrosini. Five minutes later Milan took the lead through Silva and it grabbed the third soon when Borriello scored his fifth of the season. The former Genoa striker grabbed his second of the match when he acrobatically volleyed home Pirlo's cross. In the 74th, Marco Rossi brought down Ronaldinho for the third penalty, and after Beckham refused the chance to take the kick, substitute Huntelaar fired home Milan's fifth goal. With 11 minutes remaining Suazo scored Genoa's second. Depor downs Valencia Andres Guardado and Pablo Alvarez netted potentially crucial away goals to give Deportivo Coruna a 2-1 win at La Liga rivals Valencia in their King's Cup last-16 first leg Wednesday. Third-tier Alcorcon, who dumped Real Madrid out 4-1 on aggregate in the last round, was beaten 3-2 at home to La Liga side Racing Santander. Villarreal was held to a 1-1 draw at struggling second division Celta Vigo. In a late match, Recreativo Huelva crushed Atletico Madrid 3-0. Holder Barcelona slipped to a 2-1 home defeat by 2007 winnerSevilla in their first leg at the Nou Camp Tuesday, Alvaro Negredo netting the winner from the penalty spot after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had cancelled out Diego Capel's opener. Arsenal-Bolton match postponed due to snow Arsenal's Premier League match at home to Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday has been called off due to snowy conditions, the north London club said. “Despite making every effort to stage tonight's match... the sudden and unpredicted adverse change in weather conditions in the Highbury area has left us no choice but to postpone the fixture,” they said on their website (www.arsenal.com).
