MILAN'S veteran captain, Franco Baresi, celebrated his 500th league appearance for the club with a 2-0 victory at Piacenza yesterday that restored the league leaders eight point lead in Italy's Serie A.
Champions Juventus had cut Milan's lead to five points after beating Parma 1-0 on Saturday, in a match brought forward to allow the Turin team an extra day to prepare for Wednesday's European Cup semi final first leg.
French international mid fielder Marcel Desailly put Milan ahead with a glancing header in the 52nd minute from a Roberto Baggio corner. Marco Simone made it 2-0 in the 65th.
Baresi, who has played for Milan since his career began in April 1978, ensured the former European champions kept a clean sheet in defence but his day was blemished by a second half booking. Baresi has played 439 Serie A matches and 61 in Serie B in a remarkable career with Milan.
Milan, seemingly with their fourth title in five years wrapped up, have 59 points, Juventus 51 and Fiorentina, who ended Inter's six match winning streak with a 2-1 defeat, are on 50 with seven matches remaining.
Lazio's Giuseppe Signori, ignored by Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi when he called up players for a training session last week, stole the show at Rome's Olympic Stadium with all three goals in his club's 3-0 defeat of Vicenza.
Inter Milan, chasing third place to crown a season that has come good after a poor start, took the lead through Felice Centofanti in the 10th minute at San Siro. But Fiorentina hit back with two goals in quick succession from Sandro Cois and Pasquale Padalino. Inter, without suspended England midfielder Paul Ince, were reduced to 10 men in the final minute when Pierluigi Orlandini was sent off.
Bari and Roma also battled with 10 men apiece in a match important for the former's hopes of staying in Serie A and the latter's flickering hopes of a UEFA Cup place. Second from bottom Bari took the lead in the opening minute through mid fielder Pietro Parente and looked set to win when Roma defender Fabio Petruzzi was sent off for shoving striker Igor Protti in the face in an off the ball incident.
But Roma struck back with a close range shot from striker Francesco Totti in the 51st minute. Bari defender Roberto Ripa was then sent off and Roma's Francesco Statuto made it 2-1 in the 65th. Roma are now level on points with city rivals Lazio.
In Spain, Valencia slipped out of contention for the title when they threw away an early lead to lose 2-1 at Tenerife yesterday. They stay in third place, three points behind Barcelona, who won 1-0 at Albacete, and eight behind leaders Atletico Madrid, who lost 2-1 to neighbours Real in matches played on Saturday. Tenerife move to sixth place in the league.
Fourth-placed Espanyol bounced back after a run of bad results to hammer lowly Merida 3-0, while fifth placed Real Betis brought home a point from their 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad. Surprise package Compostela seem to have run out of steam and slip to eighth after losing 1-0 at bottom club Salamanca.
Bayern Munich went top of the German league on Saturday beating title rivals Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at home. Munich, who play Barcelona in the UEFA Cup semi finals tomorrow are two points ahead of the defending champions, but Borussia have a game in hand.
The decisive goal, in an ill tempered match which saw six players booked, came from Mehmet Scholl in the 38th minute, with a lob created by former German captain Lotthar Matthaeus.
Third placed Borussia Moenchengladbach's 2-0 defeat of relegation candidates Eintracht Frankfurt heralded the end for Frankfurt coach Karl Heinz Koerbel.
Koerbel, the fifth German league coach to be sacked this season, was replaced only minutes after the defeat by Serbian Dragoslav Stepanovic.
In the relegation battle, Kaiserslautern, second from bottom, gained three crucial points on Friday, beating fellow strugglers Cologne 1-0. There are only six points separating the ninth placed and 17th placed teams. Bottom club Uerdingen are trailing, with nine games to go.
