European Football: Italians take upper hand

IT WAS a good night for Italy's Serie A in Europe last night. Parma gained a one- goal advantage from their tricky Uefa Cup trip to Sweden's AIK Stockholm while, in the Cup-Winners' Cup, Sampdoria thumped Grasshoppers Zurich 3-0 at home.

The second leg of the second-round tie should be a formality for Samp, who were without the injured David Platt. Alessandro Melli, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Riccardo Maspero were on target last night. In Stockholm, Faustino Asprilla, reportedly unsettled at Parma, set up the only goal for Massimo Crippa, 18 minutes from time, to give the Italians a deserved win in the night's only Uefa Cup tie.

Elsewhere in the Cup-Winners' Cup, Feyenoord had a second-half goal from their Swedish international forward, Henryk Larsson, to thank for their 1-0 home win over Werder Bremen. The Bundesliga side played very negatively, and were lucky not to lose more heavily.