A dissapointing start for Inter, strong contenders for the title. Ronaldo was missed, as he is still suspended. On the positive, young Italian striker Nicola Ventola was outstanding, scoring 2 in his first league game for Inter. The multi-million dollar player shows great potential for the season.

Juventus 4 - Edgar Davids 22, Igor Tudor 32 Gianluca Pessotto 44, Daniel Fonseca 68 Perugia 3 - Hidetoshi Nakata 55, 62 Antonio Bernardini 89 HT: 3-0; Att: 18,000

Juventus dominated this thriller. After going up 3-0 in the first half, the Juve defense relaxed. Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata made an explosive Serie A debut with 2 goals that pulled Perugia up to 3-2. Juve then scored the definitive 4th goal, but Perugia gave them a fight. Nakata is the great revelation of the 1st round.

Piacenza 1 - Simone Inzaghi 87 Lazio 1 - Dejan Stankovic 73 Red card: Stefano Lombardi (Lazio) 86 HT: 0-0; Att: 14,000 - - - -

Disappointing start for contenders Lazio. Vieri made his Serie A debut for Lazio, but was unable to tip the scales in their favor.

Bari 1 - Gianluca Zambrotta 10 Venezia 0 HT: 1-0; Att: 22,000 - - - -

Saturday: AS Roma 3 - Paulo Sergio 48, 82, Francesco Totti 57 Salernitana 1 - Rigobert Song 41 Red card: Pietro Fusco (Salernitana) 45 Haltime: 0-1; Att: 62,650 - - - -

Great performance for Roma. New Paulo Sergio proved to be a great buy.

Fiorentina 2 - Rui Costa 6, Gabriel Batistuta 60 Empoli 0 Red cards: Edmundo (Fiorentina) and Di Fusco (Empoli) 63 HT: 1-0; Att: 34,000 - - - -

A strong start for the Florence side. The old favorites of Fiorentina shone. The "Animal" Edmundo only managed to get one red card.

Udinese 2 - Jonathan Bachini 15, Amoroso 42 Sampdoria 2 - Valerio Bertotto 33og, Vincenzo Montella 37 HT: 2-2; Att: 20,000 - - - -

A clash between what appeared to be even teams. Udinese was able to play well without their big stars from last year, but their absence was noted.

Parma 0 Vicenza 0 Att: 24,000 - - - -

Disappointing start for the big spending Parma side.

AC Milan 3 - Oliver Bierhoff 45, 51, Leonardo 81 Bologna 0 HT: 1-0; Att: 50,700

An excellent display by the "new" AC Milan. Bierhoff was, as always, deadly in the air. Milan showed themselves capable of dominating opponents like the teams of old. Bologna is weak after the departure of their stars.