France swings to Brazilian 'tricksters

France swings to Brazilian 'tricksters
Agence France Presse

Paris, Dec 13: The French soccer league was swinging to Brazilian samba-beat last evening as both St Etienne's Alex and Paris Saint Germain's Christian earned hat-tricks.

Alex had already bagged his three goals before 30 minutes were up in St-Etienne's 5-1 drubbing at home to Marseille and even scored a fourth with about half an hour to go. Christian scored two of his before the 20th minute in PSG's 3-1 win at Metz and completed his hat-trick with 11 minutes to go.Bastia meanwhile beat pacesetters Monaco 1-0, meaning the principality club saw their lead at the top fall from five to three points.

Lazio and Juventus went three points clear at the top of the Serie A after both teams notched victories as Italy's former leaders AS Roma crashed to defeat. Lazio beat Fiorentina 2-0 while 10-man Juventus showed their fighting spirit in a controversial 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Turin. Roma slipped to third losing 1-0 at Bologna.

St Etienne rolled back the years in their incident-packed match. They had scoredthree goals, two from Alex and one from Lionel Potillon, and both teams had filed back into the dressing room by the 24th minute because of tear gas bombs as the evening took an unusual turn.

After about 10 minutes, the teams came back on to the pitch but the break did not appear to have done visitors Marseille much good. St Etienne's last victory over Marseille was on December 16, 1979.

The Juventus-Inter Milan match turned controversial in the second half, when Edwin Van Der Sar was sent off after a linesman wrongly told a doubting referee that Juventus' Dutch goalkeeper, well outside his area, had used his hands to block a shot from Ivan Zamorano. TV replays showed that the contact was with the keeper's chin and chest.

Results

In Germany: Borussia Dortmund 1 drew VFB Stuttgart; Bayern Munich 3 (Paulo Sergio 2, Roque Santacruz) bt Hansa Rostock 3-0; Bayer Leverkusen 2 drew Hamburg 2.
Leaders: Bayern Munich 30, Bayer Leverkusen 28, Hamburg 27.

In Spain: Deportivo La Coruna 1(Jose Felix Guerrero own goal) bt Real Sociedad 0; Celta Vigo 1 drew Atletico Bilbao 1; Seville 3 bt Barcelona 2; Real Zaragosa 3 drew Numancia 3; Real Madrid 1 (Raul Gonzalez) drew Racing Santander 1 (Vivar Dorado); Valencia 2 bt Atletico Madrid 1.
Leaders: Deportivo 33, Celta Vigo 28, Real Zaragosa 26, Barcelona 23.

In Italy: Lazio 2 (Alen Boksic, Dejan Stankovic) bt Fiorentina 0; Juventus 1 (Filippo Inzaghi) bt Inter Milan 0; Bologna 1 bt AS Roma 0.
Leaders: Lazio 28, Juventus 28.

In England: Wrexham 2 bt Midlesbrough 1; Burnley 1 bt Derby 0; Tranmere Rovers 1 bt West Ham United 0; Birmingham City 1 bt Watford 0; Chelsea 6 bt Hull City 1; Tottenham Hotspur 1 drew Newcastle United 1