Bayern back to winning ways

FC Bayern München 2-0 VfL Wolfsburg

Bayern overcame late setbacks to both Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn as second-half goals from Roque Santa Cruz and Lucio earned them victory against Wolfsburg. Ballack was ruled out after failing to recover from a thigh strain picked up in the 1-0 win against Club Brugge on Tuesday, while Kahn sustained a knee injury in the pre-match warm-up. The German international has missed just nine Bundesliga games in six seasons, so Bayern fans were given a rare glimpse of goalkeeping coach Bernd Dreher in action.

Dreher's last league appearance came in March 2001, but he showed few signs of rustiness as Bayern eased to victory thanks to Santa Cruz's powerful header on 67 minutes before Lucio sealed the win in added time. The result saw the Bavarian side maintain their two-point lead at the Bundesliga summit, no small achievement given the list of absentees. Felix Magath is still without Bixente Lizarazu (calf), Philipp Lahm (cruciate ligament), Andreas Görlitz, Michael Rensing (both shoulder), Owen Hargreaves (groin), Claudio Pizarro (thigh) and Martin Demichelis (back).

Magath said: "We have got a lot of injured players at the moment and therefore we aren't playing as well as we can. All in all I think we can be happy with our performance here though. We were a bit surprised to lose Kahn but I knew that Dreher would do well because he's in excellent shape."

Juventus 2-0 FC Internazionale Milano

Juventus continued their 100 per cent start to the new Serie A season, registering their sixth successive victory as goals from David Trezeguet and Pavel Nedvěd proved enough to defeat Inter. The result keeps the Bianconeri five points clear of Inter's city rivals AC Milan, and never looked in doubt when Trezeguet broke the deadlock midway through the first half after goalkeeper Júlio César could only parry Zlatan Ibrahimovic's free-kick.

The Inter custodian was equally helpless when Nedvěd fired a blistering long-range free-kick in 12 minutes later to double the lead and Juve cruised to victory, much to coach Fabio Capello's delight. "I'm really glad about the result," he said. "Above all I liked my team's commitment and attitude. We fully deserved to win." Nedved added: "We performed well and after taking the lead we controlled the match."

However, victory came at a price for Juventus as Ibrahimovic (ankle), Lilian Thuram and Trezeguet (both thigh) were all forced off the field with injuries. Capello was already without long-term absentees Gianluigi Buffon and Alessandro Birindelli, while right-back Jonathan Zebina is nursing a thigh problem.

R. Charleroi SC 3-3 Club Brugge KV

Substitutes Javier Portillo and Victor Simões de Oliveira salvaged a share of the spoils at Charleroi as Club Brugge came from two goals down. Serhiy Serebrennikov was fit enough to take a place on the substitutes' bench after a lengthy lay-off, but the visitors got off to a terrible start and were already 2-0 down after 24 minutes. Ivan Leko reduced the deficit six minutes before half-time but François Sterchele restored the two-goal cushion with just 15 minutes remaining and Club Brugge's hopes looked to have vanished before Portillo and Victor came to the rescue.

The point came at a price, however, with Jonathan Blondel the latest addition to an already lengthy list of absentees after picking up an ankle injury. Joos Valgaeren, Michael Klukowski, Ivan Gvozdenović, Philippe Clement and Marek Špilár (all knee), Gunther Vanaudenaerde and Rune Lange (both calf), Manasseh Ishiaku (thigh) and Sebastian Hermans (ankle) are already out but Jan Ceulemans is hopeful the list will soon diminish.

"We now have two weeks' rest, so hopefully some of our players can recover from injury," the coach said. "We should have won considering the amount of chances we had. But if one team deserved to win, it was us after we came from 2-0 behind. We stayed calm, created opportunities, dominated possession and pulled it back to 2-1. In the second half we had five chances, but they made it 3-1 with one good attack. Then it seemed over and out for us, but we fought back."

SV Pasching 2-0 SK Rapid Wien

Rapid's sluggish start to the season continued on Saturday as they succumbed to their fourth defeat of the campaign against Austrian Bundesliga leaders Pasching. Fit-again captain Steffen Hofmann made his 100th league appearance, but was unable to resurrect his team after Michael Baur gave the home side the lead midway through the first half. Rapid appeared to be missing inspirational midfield player Andreas Ivanschitz, who was ruled out after injuring an elbow in Tuesday's match against Juventus.

None the less, Jozef Valachovic could have equalised for Rapid five minutes before half-time but his header missed the target and Chiquinho made the visitors pay for their profligacy just four minutes after the restart. Rapid coach Josef Hickersberger brought on Muhammet Akagündüz for Axel Lawaree with 20 minutes remaining but the change failed to inspire his side, although Sebastian Martínez was guilty of spurning two late opportunities.

The result leaves Rapid lying five points adrift of Pasching, and the club also have off-the-field concerns. The Austrian Football Association has revealed it wants Hickersberger to replace Hans Krankl as national coach.