Juventus, Roma, AC Milan start on positive note

Champions Deportivo la Coruna went top of the Spanish League on Saturday with a home 2-0 victory over troubled Catalan giants Barcelona.

Deportivo’s Galician neighbours Celta Vigo were knocked off top spot after losing 3-0 at Madrid’s supposed third string side Rayo Vallecano. Rayo, who made the early pace last season, are now fourth.

Captain Laurent Casanova scored in Bastia’s 1-0 victory over Metz in the French league on Saturday to shoot them to the top of the table.

Meanwhile, German league leaders Bayern Munich and Shalke 04 both lost on Saturday but maintain their positions at the top of the league while Kaiserslautern coach Otto Rehhagel resigned on Sunday.

Napoli’s Roberto Stellone opened the score on 40 minutes after a defensive blunder by Juve central defender Ciro Ferrara.

However, after the break Yugoslav Darko Kovacevic levelled the scores with a fine header from a cross by Zinedine Zidane on 67 minutes before Alessandro del Piero scored his first league goal in a year on 74 minutes.

AS Roma’s Italian international Francesco Totti scored the first with a header and an own goal by Bologna’s Marcello Castellini, closely marked by Argentinian striker Gabriel Batistuta, accounted for their second in a 2-0 victory.

AC Milan won by the same scoreline against Vicenza with star players Oliver Bierhoff of Germany and Ukraine’s Andrei Shevchenko on target.

Udinese were the biggest scorers of this first weekend after their 4-2 victory over Brescia, adding to their recent ousting of Juventus from the Italian Cup.

Champions Lazio, beaten 2-0 in the Champions League by Arsenal in mid-week had a hard time in Bergamo where they could only manage a 2-2 draw with Atalanta.

The Romans were saved by a late goal from Simone Inzaghi to draw level with the newly-promoted side.

In Spain, Valencia notched up their sixth consecutive victory winning 5-1 against Las Palmas to clinch second spot while Real Madrid could only draw 0-0 in the heavy rain at Santander in Saturday night’s match.

Deportivo went ahead on 65 minutes with a 25 metre shot from veteran Brazilian Donato and finished off the Catalans with a solo effort from new signing Diego Tristan.

Barcelona, who missed World Player of the Year Rivaldo through injury, have now lost four of their last five matches including the 2-0 defeat against AC Milan in the European Champions League in midweek.

New coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer will soon face the scorn of the fickle Barcelona public who infamously whistled Ronaldo for not passing often enough in what was his greatest ever season.

Real Madrid held on to their own unbeaten record with a 0-0 draw at Racing Santander but could have done better as Santander’s Russian striker Vladimir Bestchastnykh was sent off before half-time.

In France, Laurent Casanova found the net two minutes before the break for Bastia against eastern French side Metz. Bastia had further chances through Frederic Nee, Pierre-Yves Andre and Yann Lachuer but failed to add to their total.

Paris Saint Germain are in second spot following a 1-1 draw at Guingamp and were fortunate not to lose. Peter Luccin scored two minutes from time to end Guingamp’s run of four consecutive victories.

Bruno Rodriguez had scored from the spot for Guingamp with just under half an hour to go after Sylvian Distin had fouled Fabrice Fiorese in the box.

Defending champions Monaco let slip a two-goal advantage to only draw 2-2 against Bordeaux and Marseille missed a penalty in their 1-1 draw with 10-man Lyon on Sunday.

In Germany, Bayern, who went down 1-0 to Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League mid-week compounded their misery by losing at home to Hansa Rostock by the same score. Rostock have won three consecutive matched unders new coach Friedhelm Funkel.

Schalke 04 suffered their first defeat of the season, losing 2-0 at Hamburg. Kaiserslautern coach Otto Rehhagel resigned after his side could only draw 1-1 with bottom placed newly promoted Cottbus.

Rehhagel, known as King Otto, took Kaiserslautern into the first division in his first season and then won the league in his second in 1998. His side, struggling to find form lie in 12th place.