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Juventus had returning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to thank after his crucial saves helped them beat Fiorentina 1-0 and claim a provisional lead in the Serie A on Saturday.

Italy’s first-choice keeper spent four months out with a back injury until appearing in the Italian Cup last week, only to come down with a brief fever. But with Alex Manninger still hobbling from a knee injury, Buffon was summoned and made his most important save in the 71st minute when Manuel Pasqual crossed to Alberto Gilardino at the near post and Buffon pushed his low shot away from danger.

Juventus leads Inter Milan on goal difference in the standings with 43 points each, but Inter can reclaim the sole lead on Sunday against Sampdoria.

AC Milan was third with 37, and Genoa fourth on 35.

In the only other match on Saturday, Vincenzo Italiano scored a spectacular last-minute winner for Chievo Verona to beat Reggina 1-0, leaving Reggina alone on the bottom.

Claudio Marchisio’s first league goal for Juventus came when he ran onto a pass by Alessandro Del Piero and lifted the ball over Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey in the 21st.

“Really, it is great,” said Marchisio, “I have to thank Alex (Del Piero) who provided a great assist. We know it is an important goal and now tomorrow we’ll see how Inter do.”

Mario Santana went close to an equalizer for Cesare Prandelli’s side, but his header rebounded off the crossbar. Alberto Gilardino then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside.

“Mistakes happen and sometimes they help your team,” said Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri. “Maybe the linesman should have seen it but there have been times when we have suffered in this way.”

Ranieri also praised the improvement in his midfield after halftime.

“Marchisio and (Marco) Marchionni both had great games. They always put themselves out for the team. In the first half our midfield were overrun and not with the pace of the match, but in the second (Cristiano) Zanetti did a lot of good things.”

Just before halftime Fiorentina had another chance to draw level, but Per Kroldrup and Alessandro Gamberini collided as they went for a header from Riccardo Montolivio’s cross and sent the ball wide.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said his club has made an inquiry to buy Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones.

“We made an enquiry for Jones but I don’t know how far it has gone,” Redknapp said after his team lost 2-1 to Manchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

“I have no idea how far the chairman has got with it. I don’t think it’s anywhere near yet. “Whether Sunderland want to do a deal I don’t know.”

Struggling to stay out of relegation trouble but in the final of the League Cup having won that trophy last season, Tottenham is short of strikers although Redknapp bought Jermain Defoe from former club Portsmouth earlier this month.

There is newspaper speculation that Redknapp is trying to tempt Sunderland with striker Darren Bent and cash in return for Jones.

Bayern Munich defender Willy Sagnol is ending his career because of persistent pain in his Achilles’ tendon.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said Sagnol’s contract would be annulled in the next few days.

“I saw him on Wednesday and he told me that it made no sense to continue,” Rummenigge told the Sueddeutsche newspaper Thursday.

The move was expected. Sagnol has hardly played for Bayern in the last season and a half because of various injuries.

Sagnol is the only member of Bayern’s team that won the Champions League in 2001 still on the roster.

The 31-year-old Frenchman arrived in Bayern in 2000 and has played 184 games for Bayern. He still had another year on his contract.

In recent weeks, Sagnol has been linked with a return to his former club Monaco in some form of management role. Monaco is struggling in 14th place in the French league under coach Ricardo Gomes. Sagnol played there from 1997-2000.

Sagnol, who has 58 caps for France, last appeared for Les Bleus at last year’s European Championship and has since lost his place to Arsenal’s Bakary Sagna.

Europe’s best and wealthiest football clubs will gather next month for a first summit meeting since creating their own independent organization.

The European Club Association, which includes 137 members - ranging from England’s Manchester United to Santa Coloma of Andorra - will meet Feb. 9-10 in Geneva to search for common ground on issues such as finances and foreign ownership, paying players’ wages and signing teenage talent.

“We don’t have a confrontational role,” ECA general secretary Michele Centenaro said Thursday. “We are very open and there to help the football community.”

Each of the 53 European football nations is represented on the ECA which was created in January last year as part of a peace deal between elite clubs and the game’s world governing body, FIFA, and European authority UEFA.

A total of 103 clubs have earned a two-year membership through their UEFA ranking, and a further 34 have applied or been rewarded for success in the Champions League.

It means tiny SS Murata of San Marino has a seat at the table while the world’s richest club, the Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City from England, does not.

“It is not just about the big clubs. The opinion of all the clubs will be taken into account,” Centenaro said from the ECA base near UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Centenaro said the general assembly in Geneva will hear reports from five working groups to help draw up policies to lobby football authorities and lawmaking bodies such as the European Union.

UEFA will also present ideas on future distribution of income from the Champions League which spread ?585 million ($759 million) in prize money among 32 clubs last season. Winners Man Utd got the most, earning ?43 million ($56 million).

The ECA must also decide how to fill an expected vacancy on its 15-member management board, which is led by former West Germany striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, now chairman at Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich.

Ramon Calderon was elected to the ECA board last July as a representative of Real Madrid but resigned as president of the Spanish champion last week.

Paris Saint-Germain president Charles Villeneuve will resign from the troubled French club next month after losing a boardroom tussle against the club’s main backer, Colony Capital.

PSG announced on its Web site late Thursday that Villeneuve will step down on Feb. 3, and a new president and board will be chosen that day.

With results improving and the fans behind the team, the last thing Paris Saint-Germain needed after two years combatting relegation and fan violence was a boardroom crisis.

But a bitter clash with Sebastien Bazin of Colony Capital - which owns over 60 percent of shares in the club - has overshadowed events at a time when PSG was pushing hard for a Champions League place, being in sixth place in the French league and only two points behind third-place Marseille.

Villeneuve remains a popular figure among fans and players alike - he was instrumental in signing Claude Makelele, Ludovic Giuly and Stephane Sessegnon - while Bazin was viewed with skepticism by fans who question whether Colony Capital shares Villeneuve’s passion for the club.

As captain, Makelele this week demanded an explanation as to what was really happening behind the scenes at PSG, a club beset by fan violence for two decades.

“An explanation has to be given to the staff and notably to us, the players,” Makelele told RTL radio station. “It’s the least they could do to explain what’s happening at the club.”

The rift surfaced late last week, when Villeneuve addressed the board’s perceived lack of ambition in an internal letter, requesting more funds and greater control of spending policy in order to attract big names.

Bazin was reportedly furious at this open criticism of the club’s strategy and incensed that Villeneuve was speculating to bring Arab investment to PSG, which sports daily L’Equipe says has lost ?224 million ($291 million) over the last seven years.

As the main shareholder, it was Bazin’s job to find investors and not Villeneuve’s.

Bazin could now take over or choose a successor to Villeneuve, a former television journalist with influential friends in football, such as Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.

It was reported that Villeneuve could have countered Bazin by finding a new backer and using his fan support to alienate Bazin. But this now seems improbable.

PSG’s fans have flexed their muscle before, pressuring president Francis Graille, along with coach Vahid Halihodzic and security chief Jean-Pierre Larrue, when all three quit in 2004 as tension reached breaking point at Parc des Princes.

The PSG fans during Sunday’s 2-1 home win over Sochaux made their feelings known that Villeneuve had their support, while Bazin did not and was viewed as passionless and too calculating.

This all left the players feeling confused.

“We want to know where the club is going,” goalkeeper Mickael Landreau said. “We have some questions as to what is going on. Everyone wants to understand and to know what shape we’ll be in at the end of the season.”

Furthermore, PSG’s notoriously violent hooligan element has been involved in brutal clashes.

This raises fears that mob violence was on the rise again at PSG, a little over two years after the shooting death of PSG fan Julien Quemener - allegedly involved in a racist attack on a Jewish fan - prompted a government clampdown.

Several dozen of PSG’s hooligan mob were given bans ranging from 12 to 18 months in the wake of Quemener’s shooting by an off-duty policeman trying to protect the Jewish fan from an angry mob.

These bans have now elapsed and violence has come back.

Before a UEFA Cup match against Dutch club FC Twente on Dec. 18, about 150 PSG thugs clashed in the city’s historical center against a similar number of Dutch fans - in what appeared to be a prearranged meet - in broad daylight. Iron bars and belts were used, and bottles thrown, putting Christmas shoppers in the packed street at risk.

Later that evening, a 300-strong mob of PSG hooligans clashed with riot police for more than an hour outside Parc des Princes as they attempted to break through police lines to fight with Twente’s thugs, and tear gas was used.

This month, eight PSG fans were handed prison sentences ranging from two weeks to one month after 100 PSG hooligans attacked about 150 Bordeaux fans at their clubhouse on the eve of an away match on Jan. 10, leaving four Bordeaux fans with minor injuries.

Bayern Munich needs better players in some positions to reach the top level of the European football, according to club president Franz Beckenbauer.

In an interview with an Internet portal Tuesday, Beckenbauer also singled out newcomer Hoffenheim as Bayern’s top rival for the Bundesliga title.

“There are some positions where we need to improve,” Beckenbauer told T-Online.de, the Internet portal of the German telecommunications company.

“The right side for example is lagging behind the left side. We have to do something there,” Beckenbauer said, but did not single out any players.

Speaking about the Bundesliga championship, Beckenbauer said promoted Hoffenheim would be his club’s closest challenger, despite losing the league’s top scorer Vedad Ibisevic to a knee injury.

“Hoffenheim is strong enough to overcome Ibisevic’s absence,” Beckenbauer said.

Halfway into the season, Hoffenheim leads on goal difference form Bayern, the defending champion.

“If everything goes normally and nothing bad happens, I think Bayern will defend the title,” he said.

Beckenbauer said that “with a little bit of luck,” Bayern could even reach the final of the Champions League.

Results Tuesday in English football (home teams listed first).

League Cup

Semifinals

Second Leg

Manchester United 4, Derby 2 (Manchester United advances 4-3 on aggregate)

FA Cup

Third Round Replay

Doncaster 3, Cheltenham 0

League One

Leyton Orient 1, Southend 1

Peterborough 0, MK Dons 0

Swindon vs. Hartlepool, ppd.

League Two

Accrington Stanley vs. Darlington, ppd.

Aldershot 2, Notts County 2

Dagenham and Redbridge 1, Exeter 2

Port Vale 1, Gillingham 3

AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini expressed relief Tuesday over Kaka’s decision to stay with the club, saying he had feared that the playmaker would be tempted to accept Manchester City’s record-breaking offer.

Kaka turned down a transfer to the English club late Monday, despite City promising to make him the paid-player in the world.

“Yes there was a moment in which I feared he would leave,” Maldini told the ANSA news agency, “because I didn’t expect these events that fortunately finished well.”

Many fans and players thought Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Fiorentina would turn out to be the Brazilian’s last match for Milan. Maldini said he realized at the final whistle that it could have been the last time he saw Kaka in the red and black shirt.

“It was a hug you would normally do after a victory, but there was also the hope that I would play with Ricky again,” Maldini said, using Kaka’s nickname.

Even though the 40 year-old Maldini has been at the San Siro club his entire career, he was still amazed by the demonstrations from supporters, which he feels helped Kaka decide to stay.

“Milan surprised me in general because I believe that passion is everything,” Maldini said. “The fans showed this and Ricky was struck by all this affection. He is a special player and the kids had an incredible effect.”

Bologna signed striker Pablo Osvaldo on a 4 1/2-year contract from Fiorentina in a transfer worth ?7 million ($9,1 million) on Tuesday.

Osvaldo, who will get an annual salary of ?800,000 ($1.04 million), will be presented Wednesday, according to Bologna’s Web site.

The 23-year-old Osvaldo was born in Argentina but has represented Italy’s under-21 team, scoring two goals in 12 appearances.

He was thought to be joining Premier League side West Ham as a replacement for Wales striker Craig Bellamy, who joined Manchester City for an undisclosed fee on Monday.

Osvaldo is the second Fiorentina striker to leave the club in the January transfer window, following Giampaolo Pazzini’s transfer to Sampdoria. At Bologna, Osvaldo will link up with Marco Di Vaio, who tops the Serie A scoring leaders with 14 goals.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has opened up a new front in his power struggle with the Premier League club’s hierarchy by criticizing the failure to give defender Daniel Agger a new contract.

Days after himself rejecting a new deal, Benitez is worried about losing the Denmark international, whose agent has been spotted with AC Milan officials, due to dithering over a contract.

Benitez could be using Agger’s predicament to highlight why he is demanding Liverpool’s American owners give him more control over transfers instead of chief executive Rick Parry.

“The club has been too slow on Agger’s contract,” Benitez said. “Agger is now in the papers because we were not quick enough. I was talking to Agger and his agent, and Agger was telling me he wants to stay.

“His commitment to the club is 100 percent, but they have been waiting and waiting and waiting and they don’t know what is happening. This could be the same situation with other players.”

Netherlands forward Dirk Kuyt and Spain defender Alvaro Arbeloa are in the final 18 months of their contracts - like Benitez, who wanted a speedy resolution to his own talks over new terms when they opened in November.

“I wanted to finish my contract in one week and deal with other things because I was only thinking about what is best for my club,” Benitez said. “I don’t know if it is a worry about (Agger and) Milan but I do know the player wants to stay here. He wants to stay and so we can find a solution.”

Benitez is set to meet co-owners George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks at the end of the months to discuss his demands, which include greater control over the youth academy and future signings.

But Benitez is yet to convince the owners that he has the business acumen or negotiating skills to gain more power. Concern in the boardroom also centers over his lack of focus in determining future players.

“I don’t know how difficult it will be to resolve,” Benitez said. “I only know I decided to finish it because I think it is in the best interests of my club … I am only talking about working within a budget, not controlling everything.”

But it seems unlikely the impasse will be resolved before May - overshadowing Liverpool’s bid for a first English championship since 1990.

The Reds failed to return to the top of the Premier League standings Monday after being held 1-1 by crosstown rival Everton, leaving Manchester United ahead on goal difference with a game in hand.

“Now I have answered and the matter is closed,” Benitez said. “We can’t be talking about this until May, especially as we are in a fantastic position.

“It is better to concentrate on football and I think the answer I have given will help our title challenge.”