Football: Real in real trouble at lowly Tenerife

Real Madrid were winning 2-1 away to a 10-man Tenerife side with six minutes to go on Saturday - and they still lost.

It was an embarrassing return to the Heliodoro Rodriguez stadium for Real, who lost two Spanish titles thanks to dramatic defeats there in 1992 and 1993. The Dutch forward Roy Makaay equalised for lowly Tenerife in the 84th minute and three minutes later he was brought down to give the Bosnian striker Meho Kodro the chance to score his second penalty of the match.

Real finished the match with nine men: Fernando Redondo and Manuel Sanchis were both shown red cards in the last three minutes and followed Tenerife's Juanele down the tunnel before full-time.

All this chaos overshadowed a remarkable goal at the start of the second half from Real's Roberto Carlos, which cancelled out Juanele's opener for Tenerife. The Brazilian swerved an extraordinary shot from a narrow angle over the home goalkeeper, Marcelo Ojeda.

Barcelona beat Compostela 2-0 at home last night, thanks to goals from Luis Figo and Luis Enrique, to replace Real at the top of the Primera Division, which they now lead by two points with a game in hand.

In Italy, the Serie A leaders Juventus suffered only their second league defeat of the season: goals from Aldo Firicano, Luis Oliveira and Anselmo Robbiati giving Fiorentina an emphatic 3-0 home win. Internazionale lost by the same score at Lazio, where Diego Fuser, Alen Boksic and Pierluigi Casiraghi were on target. Juventus are four points clear of Lazio and Inter.

In Portugal the Lisbon derby went the way of Benfica, who thrashed Sporting 4-1. Two recent recruits from the Premiership by the Benfica coach, Graeme Souness, were on the scoresheet: Karel Poborsky, set up by a fine cross from the former Chelsea defender Scott Minto, and Brian Deane, who also made a goal for Jose Sousa. Benfica's veteran captain Joao Pinto struck the fourth goal.

In Burkina Faso, South Africa, Egypt and the hosts joined the Democratic Republic of Congo in the semi-finals of the African Nations' Cup. A spectacular late goal from David Nyathi earned South Africa a 2-1 win over Morocco yesterday. On Saturday Burkina Faso saw off Tunisia in a penalty shoot- out and Egypt, who now face the hosts in the last four, beat the Ivory Coast by the same method.