Not so super Mario as Bayern put the brakes on bad boy Basler's

Rangers' Champions League rivals Bayern Munich have suspended star midfielder Mario Basler for the rest of the German league season, the club announced yesterday. President Franz Beckenbauer told a news conference: "It's because of repeated violations of a player's obligations."

Basler was fined 20,000 marks (#8,000) in August for spending the night before a league match in a disco. He has also been involved in a salary row. In February Basler, 30, got into a scuffle with a restaurant guest, who he said tried to touch his wife, and a year ago he was fined for spending too much time at the Oktoberfest beer festival.

The midfielder has been out with a knee injury since September and his contract runs out at the end of the season, making his future unclear. Basler himself said: "I can search for a new team."

Meanwhile, Brazilian Paulo Sergio, who missed the Ibrox clash with Rangers because of a back injury, hit two goals to give Bayern a 3-1 Bundesliga win over fellow Champions League hopefuls, Hertha Berlin.

The Munich side, without a win in their last two games, made the ideal start when Giovane Elber scored in the fourth minute. They surged to success with Sergio's strikes in the 14th and 61st minutes.

o Lazio's foreign legion scored all three goals as the Rome side beat Udinese 3-0 to go a point clear at the top of Italy's Serie A. Argentina's Juan Veron, Croat Alen Boksic and Yugoslav Sinisa Mihajlovic were all on target.

Victory takes Lazio to 14 points and the head of the table, one clear of Inter Milan, who face struggling Venezia today. Roma are third on 11 points, one clear of Juventus, their opponents at the Olympic Stadium tonight.

After 32 minutes, Portuguese midfielder Sergio Conceicao crossed for Veron, who arrived in Italy on Friday after a flight from Argentina where he played in a midweek friendly, to crash in a terrific volley.

Two minutes before half-time, Boksic doubled Lazio's lead, taking advantage of a mix-up in the home side's penalty area to score his first goal of the season before Mihajlovic's free-kick after 84 minutes sealed Lazio's win.

Fiorentina dropped to seventh after conceding goals in the last seven minutes to lose 2-0 to Parma, their second successive home defeat after remaining unbeaten there for 22 months,.

As late as the 83rd minute, the match looked destined for a dull draw, but Parma substitute Marco di Vaio chased a long pass before colliding with goalkeeper Francesco Toldo on the edge of the area. The ball broke loose and di Vaio stuck out a leg as he fell to toe- poke the ball home. In the dying seconds, Frenchman Alain Boghossian added a second.

o AJ Auxerre maintained their perfect home record with a 3-1 win over Bastia to reclaim their two-point lead in the French first division.

Winger Steve Marlet and striker Stephane Guivarc'h got Auxerre off to a lightning start with goals in the opening six minutes.

Striker Ousmane Soumah pulled a goal back for the Corsicans 13 minutes from time, but Finn Teemu Tainio added a third in injury time.

The win put Auxerre on 23 points, two more than Celtic's Uefa Cup opponents Olympique Lyon, whose 1-0 victory away to Olympique Marseille on Friday had put them top for 24 hours.

Monaco are third, one point further back after beating Strasbourg 3-0 at home, while champions Girondins Bordeaux climbed to fourth with a 1-0 win at Nantes.

o Barcelona and Real Madrid were both held to surprise draws in the Spanish Primera Liga. Numancia and leaders Barcelona shared six goals, giving modest Rayo Vallecano the chance to go top if they win at Alaves today.

Real Madrid drew 2-2 at home with Oviedo despite leading twice through Fernando Morientes and Savio Bortalini. A shot from Oviedo midfielder Roberto Pompei in the 84th minute gave his side a deserved point.

Nicolas Anelka again failed to score his first goal for Real. The French striker was put clean through in the second half but fired wide.

Below-par Barcelona allowed an extraordinary recovery by the top flight lightweights, who scored their three goals in the last 10 minutes of their home clash.

The Catalans looked to be cruising home after strikes by Luis Figo and Jari Litmanen.

But, in the 83rd minute, Winston Bogarde, sent off in the last minute, conceded a penalty which was converted by Numancia's Argentinian striker Perico Ojedo. And, six minutes later, Ruben Navarro rounded Ruud Hesp for an equaliser.

Barcelona breathed a sigh of relief when Dani Garcia hit his sixth goal of the season to put Barcelona back in front in the last minute, but Numancia levelled again in the third minute of injury time through Pacheta Rojo.

Aware of Barcelona's Champions League match against Arsenal on Wednesday, coach Louis van Gaal had rested Pep Guardiola, Michael Reiziger and Luis Enrique Martinez. With a 1-0 lead he surprisingly substituted Rivaldo for young defender Carles Puyol at half-time, then after the second goal, took Luis Figo off.

Athletic Bilbao defeated Rangers' Champions League rivals Valencia 1-0 with a goal by Ismael Urzaiz.

o Russian champions Spartak Moscow continued their domination of city rivals Lokomotiv with a convincing 3-0 league derby victory.

The win all but assured Spartak of their seventh league title in the last eight years. They lead Lokomotiv by nine points and need just one point from two remaining games to clinch first place.

The win also came as a relief for Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Filimonov, whose late blunder a week ago cost Russia a place in the Euro 2000 finals when he punched Andriy Shevchenko's free kick into his own net to present Ukraine with a 1-1 draw.

This time, Filimonov got a rousing cheer from Luzhniki Stadium's 45,000-strong mostly Spartak crowd when he made a good save early in the game and went on to keep a clean sheet.

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