Football: Inter taste defeat again

OVERSEAS ROUND-UP

MANCHESTER UNITED'S European Cup quarter-final opponents, Internazionale, fell to another defeat yesterday when they lost 1-0 away to Bari in Serie A.

Yksel Osmanovski struck in the 43rd minute to give Bari their first victory in two months and condemn Inter to their sixth match without a win. The Former Bari striker, Nicola Ventola, had the visitors' best chance to score but mis-kicked from point-blank range.

Salernitana made the mistake of scoring first against Lazio, who then replied with six of their own. Briefly, Salernitana looked like repeating last November's home win over Lazio when Ighli Vanucchi scored in the 31st minute and nearly added a second in the 33rd when his shot was cleared off the line by Paolo Negro.

Negro levelled in the 44th before the league leaders - possible opponents for Chelsea in the climax of the Cup-Winners' Cup - ran away with the match after the breakthrough goals from Christian Vieri, two from Marcelo Salas, an own goal by Salvatore Fresi and a last- minute effort from Alessandro Nesta. Lazio are now two matches short of equalling last season's club record of 16 league matches without defeat.

Fiorentina survived an early scare when Parma's Enrico Chiesa hit the bar in the fourth minute to win 2-1 with goals from setpieces by the Belgian Luis Oliveira - only his second goal of the season - direct from a free- kick and Rui Costa with a penalty. The Croatian Mario Stanic scored for Parma.

Despite an unimpressive first-half against Piacenza, Milan scored in the 43rd minute when Oliver Bierhoff caught Valerio Fiori off his line with a looping header that went in off the bar and held on to it until the finish. Piacenza had Cleto Polonia sent off for a second bookable offence in the 55th minute.

Barcelona extended their lead in the Spanish first division to four points with a comfortable 4-1 win at Salamanca while Real Mallorca surprisingly lost 2-0 at lowly Alaves. Valencia leap-frogged over the island side into second place with a 4-1 against Athletic Bilbao.

Goals from Luis Figo, Luis Enrique and Patrick Kluivert put Barcelona 3-0 up at half- time, with substitute Sonny Anderson restoring their three-goal advantage after Martin Cardetti had scored for Salamanca.

Real Madrid just managed to stay in touch with the leading group as they scraped home 3-2 against Real Zaragoza, thanks to Raul Gonzalez's injury- time winner, to give their new coach John Toshack his first win.

Results, page 4