Following Wednesday's 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray he put himself on stronger ground on Sunday Milan's 3-0

Following Wednesday's 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray, he put himself on stronger ground on Sunday, Milan's 3-0 win over Venezia putting them within three points of Lazio in first place.Zaccheroni said he hopes not to meet the same fate as last year's Golden Bench recipient, Luigi Simoni, who was fired by Internazionale hours after the award was announced."I am satisfied because this is a prize that is given by my colleagues," he said. The central defender left the pitch on a stretcher eight minutes into the derby game against CSKA after suffering a gash which needed seven stitches.However the Ukraine coach, Josef Sabo, is not giving up just yet. "He is in the team unless doctors tell me otherwise," he said.Yesterday, the Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, presented the Order of Merit to Sabo and three of his players, goalkeeper Olexander Shovkovsky and strikers Andriy Shevchenko and Sergiy Rebrov. Also honoured was the veteran Dynamo Kiev coach, Valery Lobanovsky, who took Dynamo Kiev to the European Cup semi-finals last season.ItalyALBERTO ZACCHERONI, whose job security was looking dodgy a few days ago, won the Golden Bench award as the top coach in Serie A last season. Club officials were the only people in the stands watching the 4-1 defeat of their local rivals.The champions were playing the first of three home matches behind closed doors after violence at the recent Belgrade derby led to the death of a Red Star Belgrade fan.UkraineTHE CHANCES of Ukraine beating Slovenia in their Euro 2000 play-off took a downward turn on Sunday when the Dynamo Kiev captain, Olexander Holovko, injured his left knee. The Palmeiras coach, Luis Felipe Scolari, said Asprilla had not played regularly because he had not been fully fit but promised him another chance in the club's next game tomorrow.YugoslaviaPARTIZAN BELGRADE'S win over Zemun attracted much attention over the weekend, but no spectators. Brazil WHATEVER HAPPENED to Faustino Asprilla? That somersault has not been seen for some time.

The former Toon Army idol, whose second spell at Parma ended in July when he decamped to , was finally able to perform his trademark celebration when he scored his first goals for Palmeiras at the weekend. The eccentric Colombian, who has spent most of his time keeping the bench warm since his arrival, scored twice in the first 11 minutes of the 6- 0 thumping of Botafogo. McManaman had been out for nearly six weeks with a thigh injury, but he returned for Madrid in the Spanish League on Saturday, playing 67 minutes before being substituted by John Toshack.Keegan had asked his old pal and former Liverpool strike partner Toshack to play McManaman at Highbury, and the 27-year-old appeared to suffer no reaction to his recent injury.The night, however, belonged to Dixon. Since being signed from Stoke for pounds 400,000 by George Graham in January 1988 he has made 527 appearances for Arsenal and scored 22 goals. Only four men - George Armstrong, David O'Leary, Tony Adams and Nigel Winterburn - have played more times for the club.Dixon, who has been capped 22 times by England, has won three Championships, two FA Cups, a European Cup-Winners' Cup and three Charity Shields with Arsenal.. Anelka was reportedly missing through injury, but that did not spoil the occasion for Dixon, who can expect to earn pounds 300,000 from a match which Arsenal won comfortably thanks to goals from Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Stefan Malz.Another man who looks to have benefited from the night is the England coach, Kevin Keegan, as winger Steve McManaman played for 61 minutes in an effort to prove his fitness ahead of the Euro 2000 play-off with Scotland. And the 35-year-old full-back will not mind the fact that he did not actually receive the loudest cheer of the night. That went to the Gunners' all-time record goalscorer Ian Wright, who made a guest appearance as a substitute after 70 minutes and received a hero's welcome. Real Madrid provided the opposition, but the Spanish giants were without the controversial striker who joined them from Arsenal this summer for pounds 23m.

He has just returned from a six-week lay-off with a thigh injury. "I've now played for an hour in two games in the last three days and I have felt no reaction to the injury," he said.One player missing was Nicolas Anelka, who left Highbury for Madrid in a pounds 23.5m deal in the summer He was said to be injured.. NICOLAS ANELKA may have stayed away but 22,486 fans turned up at Highbury last night to pay tribute to Arsenal's loyal defender Lee Dixon in his testimonial. Substitute Stefan Malz scored with a diving header after 72 minutes before Christian Karembeu pulled one back for the Spanish giants two minutes later.England winger Steve McManaman played for 61 minutes after coming off the Madrid bench in an effort to prove his fitness ahead of Saturday's Euro 2000 play-off clash with Scotland at Hampden Park. He joked: "It was very nice for me to play in Ian Wright's testimonial!"Patrick Vieira shot Arsenal in front after 12 minutes and Dennis Bergkamp added the second four minutes before the break.

It was party night for Arsenal full-back Dixon as more than 22,000 fans turned up to pay tribute to the loyal 35-year-old and see the Gunners overcome Real Madrid. But the star of the show was undoubtedly the former Highbury favourite Wright who delayed the start of the match by 20 minutes after he threw some of the players' shirts out of the dressing room window. Wright, currently at Celtic, asked fans outside if they wanted a present. He then threw out the shirts of Marc Overmars and Davor Suker, much to the delight of the gathering hordes. But it meant that kit man Vic Akers had to dash to the Arsenal club shop and get replacement shirts and then have them printed up with new names and numbers.Wright, the club's all-time record goalscorer, earned the loudest cheer of the night when he came off the bench 20 minutes from time to replace Suker but Dixon, who will have earned around pounds 300,000 from the night, had no complaints. IAN WRIGHT almost ruined Lee Dixon's big night out after his high jinks delayed the kick-off of the full-back's testimonial at Highbury. He did the right thing."Fourth day of five; Australia won tossPAKISTAN - First Innings 367 (Saeed 61, Inzamam 88, Yousuf 95, Moin 61).AUSTRALIA - First Innings(Overnight: 515 for 9)S K Warne c Mushtaq b Wasim 86S A Muller not out 6Extras (b3, lb12, nb26) 41Total (139.1 overs) 575Bowling: Wasim 31.1-6-87-2; Shoaib 32-2-153-4; Abdur 17-3-66-0; Azhar 19-2-52-1; Mushtaq 38-3-194-3; Ijaz 2-0-8-0.PAKISTAN - Second InningsSaeed Anwar not out 118Mohammad Wasim lbw b Fleming 0Ijaz Ahmed c Gilchrist b McGrath 5Inzamam-ul-Haq c Ponting b Fleming 12Yousuf Youhana c M Waugh b Muller 75Abdur Razzaq not out 2Extras (2b, 6lb, 3nb) 11Total (for 4, 53 overs) 223Fall: 1-3, 2-8, 3-37, 4-214To bat: Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood, *Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar.Bowling: McGrath 14-4-56-1; Fleming 11-2-47-2; Muller 10-1-55-1; Warne 14-4-45-0; Ponting 4-0-12-0.Umpires: D J Harper and E A Nicholls.. Warne had hit nine fours and four sixes.Pakistan's second innings was bolstered by an unbeaten 118 from their opener, Saeed Anwar, who had kind words for Warne, the Australian having called for adjudication from the third umpire when many in the ground thought he had made a slip catch which would have dismissed Saeed while on 12.It transpired the ball had not carried, and Saeed said: "That was good from Shane Warne, and I think this is what sport needs I think it's a really good gesture and I thank Shane for it.

I wasn't quite sure what to do," Warne said.In the end his mistimed the first ball of Wasim's 32nd over, and Mushtaq, extracting some minor revenge, caught him. With two singles to keep the strike, he had taken 30 runs off two overs.Warne said his downfall came after he began to entertain thoughts of a century. "I got away with couple and once I got to 86, at the end of that over when Wasim [Akram] started, I thought should I just try and maybe knock them around here. On a tame pitch, Warne set about the pace attack of Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar and was particularly contemptuous of his fellow leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, belting three sixes off Mushtaq's first over and then another six and a four off his next. When rain ended play early, Pakistan had reached 223 for 4 in their second innings, for an overall lead of 15.Warne and Scott Muller put on 86 for the last wicket, an Australian record against Pakistan, with Muller contributing just six to the stand.