European Football: Lazio put Parma on menu

(First Edition)

PARMA travel to the Olympic Stadium in Rome today to face a hungry Lazio, while their close pursuers in the Italian first division, Juventus and Sampdoria, square off.

Parma lead the table by two points from Sampdoria, Juventus, Roma, Fiorentina and Milan - with Lazio a further point further behind - and are the only Serie A side to have won their opening three games.

Lazio should field their strongest side after several first-choice players were rested for the 4-1 victory over second-division Modena in the Italian Cup in midweek. Their striker Giuseppe Signori, who has been the league's top scorer in the past two seasons and at present stands second with three goals, sat out that match and should be fully healed from a thigh strain.

They are still hurting over a 2-1 loss to the champions AC Milan last week, thanks to a last-gasp goal from Ruud Gullit.

The club's president, Serigo Cragnotti, later painted it as a moral victory, saying: 'I don't recall Lazio ever playing as well as that.'

Parma have had little trouble in winning their three matches so far, dominating the play in midfield en route to outscoring their opponents by a combined 7-1. They too rested many first-choice players in midweek, including six Italian internationals, when they were beaten 1-0 by Perugia in a cup tie won 4-1 on aggregate.

Juventus and Sampdoria, both beaten in recent European ties, meet in Turin for a game in which Juventus will again be without Roberto Baggio and Portugal's Paulo Sousa, both injured. The team looked organised for the first time this season in their 2-0 win at Napoli last Sunday, after struggling against promoted sides in the first two weeks.

Sampdoria will be without their injured captain, Roberto Mancini, but field their first-choice foreign trio of David Platt and the Serbs Sinisa Mihajlovic and Vladimir Jugovic.

Milan should have a relatively easy away game against Cremonese, already beaten by Parma and Fiorentina. The champions got a fright in their midweek cup tie when they had to go to a penalty shoot-out to eliminate second-division Palermo. They rested Gullit and Paolo Maldini, and lost Roberto Donadoni and their captain Franco Baresi through injury.

Milan's city rivals, Internazionale, will be without their suspended Dutch striker Dennis Bergkamp for a difficult home game against Fiorentina.

On Friday, Torino named Nedo Sonetti as their new coach, 24 hours after sacking Rosario Rampanti. The club said Sonetti would take charge of the team from tomorrow, leaving their deputy coach Lido Vieri at the helm for today's tricky away match at Foggia. Under Rampanti, Torino lost their first two league matches but then beat their fellow strugglers Padova last week.