De Rossi spot on as Roma seal Cup win
De Rossi struck in the 78th minute after Nicolas Burdisso brought down Francesco Totti inside the area to hand the Giallorossi victory in the traditional curtain-raiser to the new Serie A season, which gets under way next weekend.
Meanwhile there were mixed fortunes for Serie A sides in action on Saturday in the Coppa Italia.
Genoa exited 3-2 in the second round at the hands of Ascoli, a team that has made the opposite journey from the top flight to Serie B.
There were no such problems for another promoted team, Napoli, who prevailed 3-1 at home to Pisa.
Real Madrid crashed to a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Sevilla in the second leg of the Spanish SuperCup at the Bernabeu last night, losing 6-3 on aggregate.
Fredi Kanoute grabbed a hat-trick for Sevilla while Pepe was sent off in the second half for Madrid to complete a miserable night for Real coach Bernd Schuster.
Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld savoured his team’s second-half performance after the Bavarians thrashed Werder Bremen 4-0 to reinforce their position as early German Bundesliga pacesetters.
Franck Ribery’s penalty was all that separated the sides at the break but then goals from Luca Toni, Hamit Altintop and Andreas Ottl underlined the superiority of the Bavarians.
Schalke enjoyed a 4-1 derby victory over Borussia Dortmund that gave a measure of revenge for the defeat that virtually cost them the German title last May.
Schalke’s 2-0 reverse in Dortmund last season allowed Stuttgart to climb above them on the second last week of the campaign and it was Stuttgart that would go on to lift the title.
Marcelo Bordon opened the scoring in the 11th minute and Christian Pander added a second 20 minutes later.
Gerald Asamoah extended the advantage just before the hour mark and Kevin Kuranyi added a fourth 12 minutes from time, shortly after Nelson Valdez had pulled one back.
Hamburg moved joint top of the Bundesliga yesterday after claiming a narrow win over Bayer Leverkusen, Rafael van der Vaart scoring a 64th-minute penalty.
Lyon’s stuttering start to the new Ligue 1 season continued as they went down 2-1 to Lorient at the weekend.
Les Gones, who have won the last six French crowns, were undone by two Marama Vahirua goals either side of a Karim Benzema equaliser.
The win took Lorient top of the table alongside Le Mans, who lost their 100% record thanks to a 1-1 home draw with Lille.
Paris St Germain have yet to register a victory after being held to a goalless draw at rock-bottom Metz and Strasbourg enjoyed an impressive 3-1 triumph at Toulouse, who must travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in their Champions League qualifier second leg clash next week. Marseille drew 2-2 with Nancy last night while Rennes were held 1-1 at Nice.
PSV Eindhoven opened the defence of their Eredivisie crown with a victory yesterday but Ajax stole the headlines thanks to a stunning 8-1 win at De Graafschap.
Ibrahim Afellay and Mike Zonneveld scored in the last seven minutes as PSV edged past Heracles Almelo while Ajax found it much easier in Doetinchem with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scoring four times in the rout.
Feyenoord were also impressive winners on the opening weekend — 3-0 at FC Utrecht thanks to goals from Luigi Bruins, Nicky Hofs and new signing Roy Makaay.
Two goals from Ricardo Quaresma earned FC Porto a 2-1 win at Braga. The champions opened their defence with a win with Quaresma’s two goals sandwiching Joao Pinto’s strike.
Benfica dropped two points with a 1-1 draw at promoted Leixoes.
The Lisbon giants must have thought they had taken the spoils when Petit scored in stoppage time but Leixoes substitute Udochukwu Nwoko still had time to level things up.
Defending Turkish league champions Fenerbahce registered their first win of the new season on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Gaziantepspor.
After losing to Istanbul Buyuksehir BSK in their opener, Fener bounced back with two goals in the opening 15 minutes. Kemal Aslan grabbed the first and Semih Senturk made it 2-0. Antonio De Nigris pulled one back but the visitors could not find an equaliser.
A 90th-minute strike from Ivica Vastic helped LASK Linz claim all three points in a 2-1 win at FC Wacker Innsbruck and move to the top of the Austrian Bundesliga table.
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