Juventus' victory is marred by stabbing

Overseas football

CATHERINE RILEY

Alessandro Del Piero's first-half header against Fiorentina gave Juventus their first Serie A win in two months yesterday, as the top of the table game between Parma and Milan finished in a dour scoreless draw.

Juve's win was marred by clashes between rival fans before the match in which one suffered knife wounds; three visiting supporters and one policeman were also injured in crowd trouble after the match.

Del Piero struck in the 11th minute with a header off Angelo Di Livio's cross, lifting the Turin side to fifth in the table, just four points behind Parma and Milan, who remain locked together on 21 points and equal goal difference after 10 matches.

A disappointing defensive battle saw Parma's Hristo Stoichkov and Milan's Roberto Baggio both substituted in the second half, although the man of the match was Parma's 17-year-old goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, who made an impressive debut.

Lazio lie second on 19 points after struggling to a 2-1 victory over Cremonese at the Olympic stadium. Goals in each half from Dutchman Aron Winter and Pierluigi Casiraghi seem to put the match beyond Cremonese, but Riccardo Maspero's late penalty left Lazio battling to survive an anxious finale.

Internazionale's latest signing, Marco Branca, marked his debut by scoring the first goal in his side's 2-1 win against Udinese. Benito Carbone added a second before Giovanni Bia's penalty narrowed the gap. Padova moved off the bottom of the table with their first win of the season, a 3-0 victory over Bari.

Lothar Matthaus returned to the Bayern Munich side after a long injury lay-off on Saturday, helping them to a 2-0 Bundesliga win over Werder Bremen, only one week after he resumed first-team training. "The time was right," the Bayern president, Franz Beckenbauer, said. "In the first half, I thought he was the outstanding man on the pitch."

Real Madrid did their rivals, Barcelona, a favour when they knocked neighbours Atletico off the top of the Spanish league with a hard-fought 1-0 victory in the Spanish capital's big derby game on Saturday. Barcelona lead Atletico and Espanol on goal difference, after a 3-0 home win against struggling Albacete.