Italian Football: Lazio's masked master

LAZIO'S man in the mask way-laid Ancona yesterday. Paul Gascoigne, wearing a carbon face mask to protect his injured cheekbone, played an important part in the 5-0 thrashing of Serie A's second-bottom club, setting up the third, for Karlheinz Riedle, with a mazy dribble.

Ancona kept the scoreline respectable until the last two minutes when Giuseppe Signori scored twice to take his season's tally to 25, four clear of Adel Balbo, who converted a penalty in Udinese's 2-2 draw with Brescia (a result which fails to clarify the relegation picture).

Lazio leapfrog Juventus, who fell 2-1 at a confident Parma. Juve took the lead through Roberto Baggio but Marco Osio's second-half double lifted Parma into third, a point ahead of Dino Zoff's contenders.

Milan faltered again, playing out a San Siro stalemate with Roma, but Internazionale failed to profit. Inter were even trailing at Genoa, but Ruben Sosa's free-kick brought them a point.

ITALIAN LEAGUE: Atalanta 2 (Pisano 30, Bordin 88) Fiorentina 1 (Faccenda 86); Foggia 1 (Kolyvanov 2) Sampdoria 0; Genoa 1 (Panucci 26) Internazionale 1 (Sosa 53); Lazio 5 (Cravero 26, Fuser 45, Riedle 71, Signori 89, 90) Ancona 0; Milan 0 Roma 0; Pescara 3 (Palladini 51, Borgonovo 74, 90) Napoli 0; Torino 0 Cagliari 5 (Firicano 4, Francescoli 10, 65, Pusceddu 77, Oliveira 90); Udinese 2 (Balbo pen 6, Branca 40) Brescia 2 (Raducioiu 44, 87); Parma 2 (Osio 48, 59) Juventus 1 (R Baggio 38).

----------------------------------------------------------------- P W D L F A Pts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Milan. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 18 11 2 61 28 47 Internazionale. . . . . . . . .31 16 11 4 55 33 43 Parma. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 15 7 9 43 32 37 Lazio. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 12 12 7 60 42 36 Juventus. . . . . . . . . . . .31 14 8 9 53 40 36 Sampdoria. . . . . . . . . . . 31 12 10 9 46 42 34 Cagliari. . . . . . . . . . . .31 13 7 11 39 31 33 Torino. . . . . . . . . . . . .31 9 15 7 36 33 33 Atalanta. . . . . . . . . . . .31 13 7 11 37 40 33 Roma. . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 8 14 9 37 34 30 Napoli. . . . . . . . . . . . .31 10 10 11 44 44 30 Foggia. . . . . . . . . . . . .31 10 10 11 35 47 30 Genoa. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 6 15 10 36 51 27 Fiorentina. . . . . . . . . . .31 7 12 12 44 51 26 Udinese. . . . . . . . . . . . 31 9 8 14 37 45 26 Brescia. . . . . . . . . . . . 31 7 11 13 30 42 25 Ancona. . . . . . . . . . . . .31 5 7 19 34 66 17 Pescara. . . . . . . . . . . . 31 5 5 21 39 65 15 -----------------------------------------------------------------