Inter Milan goes 10 points clear in Serie A, Juventus in crisis after another defeat

LECCE, Italy (AP) — Substitutes Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Manuel Akanji scored late for Inter Milan to stretch its Serie A lead to 10 points with an unspectacular 2-0 win at Lecce on Saturday.

Both players were sent on for the last half hour. Mkhitaryan was left unmarked at the far post to score from Federico Dimarco’s corner in the 75th minute, and Akanji headed in from another corner in the 82nd.

“We knew they would drop off physically in the second half, and we did well to keep pushing,” Mkhitaryan said.

Dimarco thought he’d scored after the break but the goal was ruled out after a VAR check found Marcus Thuram was offside. Dimarco later had another effort to seal the win cleared off the line before he took the corner for Akanji's goal.

Inter was without star players Lautaro Martínez and Hakan Çalhanoğlu.

“Sometimes we produce our best in big matches, other times we don’t,” Akanji said. “But there aren’t two different versions of Inter. Yes, we lost to Bodø/Glimt last time out in the Champions League, but we’re still the same team capable of great things.”

Inter lost 3-1 to Bodø/Glimt in the first leg of their Champions League playoff. The Norwegian tournament upstart visits Milan for the second leg on Tuesday.

Inter’s seventh consecutive league win moved it 10 points clear of AC Milan before its city rival hosts Parma on Sunday.

Juventus’ damaging week continued with a 2-0 loss at home to Como that dents the Italian power’s hopes of Champions League qualification.

The defeat comes days after the Bianconeri’s 5-2 loss at Galatasaray in the first leg of the playoffs in this season’s Champions League. Juventus welcomes the Turkish team for the second leg on Wednesday.

Mërgim Vojvoda scored early for Como with a shot that Michele Di Gregorio should have saved after getting his arm to ball. The chance came about after Juventus’ Weston McKennie lost the ball in midfield.

There were whistles from frustrated Juve fans at the break, and it didn’t get any better for their team after the restart.

Lucas da Cunha broke through to set up Maxence Caqueret for Como’s second in the 61st.

It's Juventus' third straight defeat across all competitions and its fifth game in a row without a win.

“We made too many mistakes today. There were a number of moments where we created the problems for ourselves, and the pressure kicked in and affected us. The qualities we’ve shown haven’t disappeared, but now we can’t recognize them,” Juve coach Luciano Spalletti said. “We’re lacking a bit of cohesion, a bit of tenacity. We need to take the initiative.”

Spalletti's team remained fifth, a point behind Roma before the capital club hosts Cremonese on Sunday. Como stayed sixth, a point behind Juve. Only the top four qualify for Europe’s premier competition.

Cagliari drew 0-0 with mid-table rival Lazio in the late game. Cagliari defender Yerry Mina was sent off late with his second yellow card for a tactical foul just outside the penalty area.

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Lecce's Walid Cheddira, right, and Inter's Alessandro Bastoni in action during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Lecce and Inter Milan in Lecce, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Giovanni Evangelista/LaPresse via AP)

Lecce's Tiago Gabriel, left, and Inter's Andy Diouf in action during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Lecce and Inter Milan in Lecce, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Giovanni Evangelista/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus' Teun Koopmeiners, left, fights for the ball with Como's Maxence Caqueret during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Como in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/dpa via AP)

Juventus' Andrea Cambiaso, left, fights for the ball with Como's Mergim Voivode during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Como in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/dpa via AP)

Juventus' Manuel Locatelli, right, fights for the ball with Como's Lucas Da Cunha during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Como in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus' Kenan Yildiz, right, fights for the ball with Como's Lucas Da Cunha during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Como in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus' Kenan Yildiz fights for the ball with Como's Jacobo Ramon, right, during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Como in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity afforded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state's current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling last week significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans in various states grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

It could lessen congressional representation for Black Americans and other minorities, reversing decades of gains in minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Republicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday on legislation that would allow a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.

In light of the court's ruling on Louisiana's districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S. House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters and instead let the state revert to a map previously passed by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.

Alabama's primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state's request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan. “We had three judges determine how five million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

Before a House committee advanced the plan Tuesday, several Black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.

“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” said Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.

Some clergy members have denounced the plan to split Memphis’ congressional district, and Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about it.

“This decision undermines the work that my father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., carried out to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act,” he wrote, noting that his father was assassinated in Memphis. He added: “Do not dismantle the only Congressional district that provides Black voters in Memphis a fair opportunity to have a voice in our democracy. Do not take this nation back to the days of Jim Crow.”

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-Black Congressional districts.

Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana's congressional primary. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in five states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

A woman protests against a special session of the state legislature to redraw U.S. Congressional voting maps Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People protest against a special session of the state legislature to redraw U.S. Congressional voting maps Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

FILE - Pansies bloom in front of the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., April 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)