Football: McManaman opens account

STEVE MCMANAMAN scored his first Real Madrid goal account in a 4-1 Spanish League victory over newly-promoted Numancia.

It took Real until the second half to convert their superiority into goals at the Bernabeu Stadium and then their first was an own goal by Ivan Rocha, but it was the coach John Toshack's substitution of the former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka by the Brazilian Savio after 55 minutes that inspired the goal glut. Anelka had wasted three chances, but it took Savio only two minutes to add Real's second.

Then after 70 minutes McManaman scored his first for the club before an 83rd-minute penalty from Fernando Hierro made it 4-0 to Real. Numancia scored an injury-time consolation through Caco Moran.

Christian Vieri, the most expensive player in history, paid big dividends on the first full day of the new season in Italy, hitting a hat-trick to lead Internazionale to a 3-0 win over Verona.

The goals by Vieri, signed from Lazio for around pounds 30m in June, helped silence Inter's critics after the team's string of poor pre-season results. His first came in the 15th minute when he dummied the former Inter defender Luca Mezzano and beat Graziano Battistini with a powerful left-footed blast. After the break, Vieri raced on to a long ball from winger Francesco Moriero, headed it over Battistini and then slotted it into an empty goal. Another powerful left-footer, in the 64th minute, completed the hat-trick.

Milan could only manage a draw on the first day of their title defence at Lecce. George Weah opened the scoring in the 55th minute, only for Lecce to draw level with a header from Alberto Savino. Milan appeared back on track when Andriy Shevchenko got his foot to an Oliver Bierhoff header to make it 2-1 in the 70th, but Milan allowed the former Valencia striker Cristiano Lucarelli to equalise.