Football: McManaman opens goal account

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STEVE MCMANAMAN opened his Real Madrid goal account in a 4-1 Spanish League victory over newly-promoted Numancia on Sunday night.

It took Real until the second half to convert their superiority into goals at the Bernabeu Stadium, and it was John Toshack's decision to take off the former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka - who had missed three gilt- edged chances - and bring on the Brazilian Savio after 55 minutes that turned the tide.

Moments after an own-goal by Ivan Rocha had given Toshack's side the lead, Savio was introduced and, within two minutes, he had doubled Real's advantage. Then, after 70 minutes, McManaman struck his first goal for the club before an 83rd-minute penalty from Fernando Hierro made it 4- 0 to Real. Numancia scored an injury-time consolation through Caco Moran.

He may be the world's most expensive player and he may have scored a hat-trick on his debut for Internazionale, but Christian Vieri says he still needs to improve his fitness.

"I'm not yet at my peak," the Italian international said after Inter started their Serie A season with a 3-0 win against Verona. "I need to work hard to improve it. That doesn't mean I'm going to score four in the next game, but I will be fitter."

Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, has been known to treat his own players extremely badly, including torture for bad performances, but he was prepared to take a softer line with Iraq's Arab Games opponents, Libya, after their fans rioted near the end of a match between the sides in Jordan.

About 45 people, including some policemen, suffered minor injuries, yet Uday was somewhat circumspect in his reaction: "The riot was just an act carried out by a few fans."