European Football: Real Madrid's awful encore

FOR THE second year running, Real Madrid suffered the agony of losing the Spanish title to their traditional rivals, Barcelona, on the last day of the season, writes Rupert Metcalf.

Last term Real lost 3-2 at Tenerife, after being 2-0 ahead, to give the Catalans the prize, and yesterday they endured the same fate, losing 2-0 at Tenerife while Barcelona were celebrating after a 1-0 home win over Real Sociedad. Real finished one point behind Barcelona as Tenerife, along with Deportivo La Coruna and Valencia, confirmed Uefa Cup places.

Oscar Dertycia and Sebastian Cruzado scored first-half goals for Tenerife, while moments after news of their first goal had reached the Nou Camp, Hristo Stoichkov struck the vital winner for Barcelona. Ivan Zamorano missed several good chances for Real before he was sent off late in the game, along with Tenerife's Cesar Gomez.

In a rousing Italian Cup final second-leg tie, Giuseppe Giannini, the captain of Roma, hit a hat-trick of penalties as his side, 3-0 down from last week's first leg, beat Torino 5-2 to level the scores on aggregate. Giannini also hit the post late in the game, but Andrea's Silenzi's two strikes for Torino earned them the Cup, thanks to the away-goals rule.

Legia Warsaw won the Polish title yesterday on goal difference from LKS Lodz. The latter beat Olimpia Poznan 7-1 - but Legia won 6-0 at Wisla Krakow to gain a goal-difference advantage of +3. Kispest Honved won 5-1 at Diosgyor to take the Hungarian title by one point from Vac Samsung, while Steaua Bucharest finished four points clear in Romania.