South Africa striker Philemon Masinga sent league leaders Inter Milan crashing to a shock 10 home defeat against Bari in Italy yesteday. Inter goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca stopped Masinga's 77th-minute header but failed to hold on to the ball and the striker, still unmarked in the area, scored at the second attempt.
Second-placed Juventus took full advantage of Inter's first league defeat at the San Siro - and only their second of the season - with a 3-1 win at Bologna. With 35 points from 18 matches, the reigning champions are just a point adrift of the leaders.
"Today was an off-day," admitted Inter coach Luigi Simoni.
Inter, still haunted by a 5-0 loss to neighbours AC Milan on their last appearance at the San Siro in an Italian Cup quarter-final first leg, will rue a series of missed chances by Brazilian Ronaldo.
In the opening 10 minutes, the world player of the year twice went close to scoring, shooting into the side-netting and seeing another effort well saved by Francesco Mancini.
By contrast, the Juventus victory at Bologna was a lesson in clinical finishing with striker Filippo Inzaghi finishing off textbook counter-attacks twice in the opening 19 minutes.
Alessandro Del Piero sealed victory as early as the 59th minute with a beautiful, curling 25 metre free-kick to take his personal Serie A tally to 12 goals.
Russian Igor Kolyvanov scored a last-minute consolation goal for Bologna whose day began with controversy when Roberto Baggio refused to take a seat on the substitutes' bench against his old club.
"The player was told that (he would be brought on for the second-half) and he walked off," said Bologna coach Renzo Ulivieri. "It was his choice. I couldn't do anything about it."
Third-placed Udinese, four points behind Juventus, needed a second-half equaliser from German Oliver Bierhoff to manage a 1-1 draw at Atalanta Bergamo and stretch their unbeaten run to nine games. Fabio Gallo gave the home side a ninth-minute lead.
Lazio recovered from a goal down to win 3-1 at Fiorentina and move into fourth place. The home side took the lead through Sandro Cois's 28th-minute opener only for Croat Alen Boksic to level three minutes later with his seventh goal in six matches.
In the second half, Fiorentina paid the penalty for the 48thminute dismissal of Swede Stefan Schwarz, who was sent off for elbowing Yugoslav midfielder Vladimir Jugovic.
Argentine Gabriel Batistuta did hit the bar in the 71st minute, but in the 77th Fiorentina's brave resistance finally ended, Roberto Rambaudi turning the ball home from close range. Pavel Nedved added Lazio's third.
In Spain, Real Madrid beat struggling Salamanca 1-0 yesterday to go top of the league, but were stilled jeered off the field by their supporters. Real were well below their best and needed an opportunist effort from Italian defender Christian Panucci to take the points.
Barcelona, now two points behind, can regain top spot by beating Valencia tonight, one of their two games in hand.
Third-placed Real Sociedad are five points adrift of Barcelona after suffering their first defeat in 18 league games, 3-1 at Racing Santander.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)