Soccer: Inter Milan kick off season with a win

Italy

After the trials and tribulations of the last two months, the Italian season finally kicked off with Inter Milan winning 3-2 at Fiorentina who made no dent in their 19-point penalty deduction.

Esteban Cambiasso (2) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored as Inter warmed up for Tuesday's Champions League opener against Sporting Lisbon with a victory.

AC Milan, who play AEK Athens on Thursday, reduced their deficit to minus five points after a 2-1 win over Lazio who remain on minus 11 points.

AS Roma, who play Shakhtar Donetsk tomorrow, beat Livorno 2-0.


Spain

European champions Barcelona maintained their good start to the season with a 3-0 win over Osasuna with Samuel Eto'o scoring twice and Lionel Messi once before their opening Champions League game with Bulgarian new boys Levski Sofia tomorrow.

Barcelona are one of four clubs with maximum points after two matches and are in the leading group with Sevilla, Getafe and Valencia.

Real Madrid thrashed nine-man Levante 4-1 with new Dutch signing Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring a hat-trick and Antonio Cassano adding the other goal. Van Nistelrooy also missed a penalty. Real play Olympique Lyon in their Champions League opener on Thursday.

Valencia, who play Olympiakos Piraeus tomorrow, won 1-0 at Atletico Madrid with David Villa scoring an early winner.


England

Manchester United had a battling 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford for their fourth successive win of the season.

Ryan Giggs' early goal proved to be the winner but United will want improvements when they face Celtic at Old Trafford on Thursday.


Germany

Champions League teams Werder Bremen and Hamburg SV suffered shock defeats by amateur sides in the first round of the German Cup.

Werder went out 4-2 on penalties to regional third division side FK Pirmasens after a 1-1 draw while Hamburg lost 4-3 at Stuttgart Kickers.

Bayern Munich were behind against second division St Pauli but recovered to win 2-1 although both teams finished with 10 men.

Energie Cottbus became the third top-flight side to go out when they lost 1-0 at second division Rot-Weiss Essen while Mainz and Arminia Bielefeld also went out to third division sides. Mainz lost 1-0 at Saarbruecken and Bielefeld lost 2-1 at SC Pfullendorf.


Netherlands

AZ Alkmaar and Ajax Amsterdam finished the weekend as the only teams with maximum points from the opening three games after Alkmaar won 2-0 at NEC Nijmegen and Ajax beat Vitesse Arnhem 3-0.

Champions PSV Eindhoven, who face Liverpool in the Champions League today, won 3-1 at Willem II Tilburg with Edison Mendez scoring twice and Jefferson Farfan once with a penalty at the end of the first half.


France

Champions Olympique Lyon beat Troyes 2-0 at home to stay three points clear of the chasing pack at the top of Ligue 1, behind Marseille on goal difference, and give themselves the perfect warm-up before they face Real Madrid on Thursday.

Olympique Marseille conceded their first league goal of the season but won 3-1 at Paris St Germain to join Lyon on 13 points.

Mamadou Niang (penalty), Samir Nasri and Mickael Pagis scored for Marseille. Pauleta scored PSG's goal from the spot while Nasri missed his penalty, but followed up to score.

- REUTERS