Sporting Lisbon dismiss coach

Overseas football

Sporting Lisbon sacked their coach, Carlos Queiroz, yesterday after the team suffered its third defeat in as many weeks.

According to local television reports, the decision was taken at a meeting of club directors called by Sporting's president, Pedro Santana Lopes, immediately after Sporting lost 1-0 at home to Braga.

Internazionale did their arch-rivals a huge favour when they held Faustino Asprilla's Parma to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro, allowing Serie A leaders Milan to open up a three-point gap.

An 83rd-minute header from Marco Branca earned Inter a point after Hristo Stoichkov had given Parma a sixth-minute lead. Victory would have taken Parma second, ahead of Fiorentina, who only drew at home to Vicenza.

Milan won 2-0 at Udinese with goals from Paolo Maldini and Zvonimir Boban. They are unbeaten in their last 14 league matches. Juventus kept alive their hopes of retaining the title with a 2-0 home win over Piacenza.

At Rome's Olympic stadium the Italian international striker, Pierluigi Casiraghi, scored a first-half hat-trick as Lazio overwhelmed Cagliari 4-0. They go fifth.

Real Madrid's new coach, Arsenio Iglesias, had the teenage striker Raul to thank for his successful debut in charge of the Spanish champions. Raul opened the scoring at Real Oviedo and his second, in the 82nd minute, sealed a 2-1 win.

Barcelona moved into second behind Atletico Madrid with a 3-1 win over Zaragoza at the Nou Camp. Ivan de la Pena scored twice, including a superb lob from just inside the Zaragoza half. Atletico thrashed Athletic Bilbao 4-1.