Football: Ronaldo back to inspire Inter

RONALDO RETURNED to fire Internazionale to victory while the defending champions, Real Madrid, hit six goals in the pick of last night's Champions' League games.

Out for a month with tendinitis in both knees, Ronaldo, the Brazilian international, gathered the ball after it was fumbled by the Moscow Spartak goalkeeper, Alexander Filimonov, and scored to give Inter a 2-0 lead in the 59th minute at San Siro. It proved a vital goal as, after Ilya Tsymbalar had pulled one back, Inter held on for a 2-1 win to end Spartak's 100 per cent start. Nicola Ventola had opened the scoring for the Italian side.

After their 6-1 thrashing of Austria's Sturm Graz, Real Madrid moved to the top of Group C ahead of Spartak and Inter. Two goals each for the Brazilian, Savio, and Croatia's Robert Jarni powered the Spaniards to success after the Austrians had gone ahead.

A goal just before half-time by Stefan Effenberg gave Bayern Munich a 1-0 victory over Barcelona in Group D, Manchester United's section.

The former Birmingham City striker Sigurd Rushfeldt scored all three goals as Norway's Rosenborg Trondheim beat Galatasaray 3-0 at home to jump to the top of Group B. Juventus managed only a 0-0 draw away to Athletic Bilbao.

In Arsenal's section, Group E, a substitute, Wagneau Eloi, hit an 80th- minute winner to give the French side, Lens, a 1-0 victory over Panathinaikos.

A hotly disputed 80th-minute winner from Jurgen Rische gave Kaiserslautern a 2-1 victory at PSV Eindhoven to stretch the German team's advantage to three points on top of Group F. Rische's header was judged to have crossed the line before it was parried by the PSV goalkeeper, Ronald Waterreus.

A first-half penalty from Mika Lehkosuo and a headed goal by Mika Kottila in the second gave HJK Helsinki a 2-0 victory over Benfica in the same section.