Italian Football: Gascoigne's solo inspires Lazio

PAUL GASCOIGNE scored again yesterday, his second goal in the Italian League contributing to Lazio's 3-2 win at Pescara.

The England midfield player, who opened his Serie A account a week ago in the Rome derby, doubled his tally after 25 minutes with a fine solo effort. Gazza's goal put Lazio 1-0 ahead, but Pescara equalised three minutes after half- time though Stefano Borgonovo. Giuseppe Signori, the Lazio striker scored his 12th goal of the season in the 72nd minute to restore the visitors' lead, but a minute later Massimiliano Allegri brought the sides level again. The winner came three minutes into injury time, from Luca Luzardi, to give Lazio their third league win of the season and reduce the pressure on their coach Dino Zoff.

Milan, the leaders, dropped a point for only the third time this season but with their closest challengers, Internazionale and Juventus, both losing the title still appears a foregone conclusion. Milan drew 1-1 at home to struggling Udinese, but stretched their lead at the top to four points, with a game in hand.

Fiorentina were the conquerers of Juventus, to the delight of the Florentine side's followers who reserve a special dislike for the team from Turin. Fiorentina began confidently and took the lead after eight minutes when Brian Laudrup fastened on to Stefan Effenberg's clever though ball and fired home with a brisk left-footed shot.

On a day of dismissals, Juve's cause was made all the harder when their German defender Jurgen Kohler was sent off after 36 minutes for a second bookable offence. Francesco Baiano wrapped up a comfortable victory with the second Fiorentina goal eight minutes into the second half.

Internazionale were walloped 3-0 at second-from-bottom Ancona with Lajos Detari, the Hungarian striker, scoring two and making the third. Walter Zenga, Inter's former Italy international, was one of two keepers sent off, the other being Roma's Giuseppe Zinetti.

----------------------------------------------------------------- ITALIAN LEAGUE ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ancona 3 (Detari 19, 75, Lupo 83) Internazionale 0; Brescia 2 (Raducioiu 51, 65) Genoa 2 (Padovano 74, Arco 80); Cagliari 1 (Francescoli 63) Napoli 0; Fiorentina 2 (Laudrup 8, Baiano 53) Juventus 0; Milan 1 (Albertini 33) Udinese 1 (Balbo 44); Pescara 2 (Borgonovo 48, Allegri 73) Lazio 3 (Gascoigne 25, Signori 72, Luzardi 90); Roma 1 (Rizzitelli 89) Parma 0; Sampdoria 2 (Mancini 63, Corini pen 70) Atalanta 3 (Ganz 28, 42, Rambaudi 66); Torino 1 (Silenzi 1) Foggia 1 (Di Biagio 20). ----------------------------------------------------------------- P W D L F A Pts Milan 11 8 3 0 30 13 19 Internazionale 12 6 3 3 20 17 15 Juventus 12 5 4 3 23 15 14 Fiorentina 12 5 4 3 28 21 14 Torino 12 4 6 2 17 11 14 Cagliari 12 6 2 4 13 12 14 Sampdoria 11 5 3 3 21 18 13 Atalanta 12 6 1 5 15 19 13 Lazio 12 3 6 3 24 21 12 Parma 12 6 0 6 14 15 12 Roma 12 4 3 5 16 14 11 Brescia 12 3 5 4 13 17 11 Genoa 12 2 7 3 21 26 11 Udinese 12 4 2 6 16 18 10 Foggia 12 4 2 6 13 21 10 Napoli 12 3 2 7 18 24 8 Ancona 12 3 2 7 22 31 8 Pescara 12 2 1 9 17 28 5 -----------------------------------------------------------------