Overseas football: Djorkaeff ends Juve's long run

Youri Djorkaeff last night earned the Serie A leaders Internazionale victory over second-placed Juventus, ending the defending champions' 20- match undefeated run and opening up a four-point gap at the top of the table.

Ronaldo, who collected the 1997 Golden Ball trophy as the top player in Europe before the match, beat two defenders down the right flank in the 47th minute before sliding a low ball to Djorkaeff at the far post. Djorkaeff drove the ball past Angelo Peruzzi for his seventh goal of the season.

Inter played the final five minutes with 10 men after the French midfielder Benoit Cauet was sent off for stamping on Alessio Tacchinardi.

Earlier, Oliver Bierhoff scored twice in eight minutes as Udinese beat Roma 2-1, earning the third-placed club a sixth win in seven games. Parma stayed in fourth place after a 1-1 draw with Lazio, who stay fifth alongside Milan, 2-1 victors over Napoli.

Gabriel Batistuta scored his 100th Serie A goal but his Fiorentina side, who had scored 10 times in their previous two matches, were held 1-1 at home by Sampdoria.

In Portugal the introduction of Karel Poborsky, recently recruited by Graeme Souness from Manchester United, and two other two new players did little to resurrect Benfica's fortunes this weekend.

A 2-0 defeat at Porto, the defending champions, has left Benfica no fewer than 14 points adrift of their conquerors on Saturday, the Portuguese league leaders. Souness, the Benfica coach, fielded three new players, Ukraine's Sergei Kandurov and Portugal's Luis Carlos, as well as Poborsky, but it was to no avail as two second-half goals from Artur Oliveira gave the home side maximum points.

In Spain, Real Sociedad closed the gap on second-placed Real Madrid to four points, with a first-half goal from Francisco De Pedro enough to see off Mallorca. Barcelona remain top of the table following Madrid's 3-2 loss on Saturday at Betis. Barcelona can extend their one-point advantage by beating Salamanca today.