Baggio steals show with classic cameo

Roberto Baggio brought the San Siro to its feet last night, scoring two late goals as Inter Milan beat holders Real Madrid 3-…

Roberto Baggio brought the San Siro to its feet last night, scoring two late goals as Inter Milan beat holders Real Madrid 3-1 in their Group C tie.

Baggio came on as a substitute with less than half an hour to go and struck twice in the last five minutes, catapulting Inter to the top of the group and making them slight favourites to reach the quarter-finals.

Ivan Zamorano's 51st minute goal was quickly cancelled out by Real Madrid's Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf. However, Inter deserved the win, if only for the pulsating finale to a match which had been evenly balanced.

Spartak Moscow squandered two valuable points when they were surprisingly held 0-0 by Sturm Graz in their Group C match in the Russian capital. Having beaten the Austrians 20 in Graz in September, Spartak found it much more difficult to penetrate a packed defence. Spartak must now win at the reigning European champions Real Madrid on December 9th to have any chance of making the quarterfinals.

READ MORE

An own-goal by the Panathinaikos defender Angelos Basinas 11 minutes from time gave Dynamo Kiev a 2-1 victory in Ukraine yesterday in their Group E match in Ukraine. Kostas Kiassos's clearance from a corner struck his team-mate on the back and rebounded into the net to the delight of Dynamo, for whom Sergei Rebrov had equalised seven minutes earlier.

Ajax Amsterdam's chances of progressing to the quarterfinals were severely dented after Croatia Zagreb grabbed the only goal of a group A match the Dutch side dominated. Zagreb substitute Josip Simic took advantage after Ajax goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar failed to clear and lobbed into the net.