FLORENCE, Italy — Serie A champion Juventus lost its perfect record Tuesday after being held to a scoreless draw at fierce foe Fiorentina in a heated atmosphere at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Fiorentina had the better chances and midfielder Adem Ljajic should have put it ahead when through one-on-one with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Fiorentina forward Stevan Jovetic, Serie A's top scorer, hit the crossbar while his team also had a penalty appeal turned down. Juventus didn't have a decent shot on goal all night and seemed to be feeling fatigued following its last-minute draw at Chelsea in the Champions League last week and Saturday's Serie A victory over Chievo Verona. Bayern cruises on as Frankfurt held Mario Mandzukic scored twice against his former club VfL Wolfsburg as Bayern Munich eased to a 3-0 win Tuesday to maintain its perfect start to the Bundesliga campaign. Mandzukic's goals plus one from Bastian Schweinsteiger saw it to its fifth successive win in the league as it bids to reclaim it after missing out in the past two seasons to Borussia Dortmund. Eintracht Frankfurt was unable to keep pace with it as it dropped its first points of the season — drawing 3-3 against Dortmund. Schweinsteiger hit the post twice before giving Bayern the lead in the 24th minute. With Wolfsburg rarely venturing forward, Mandzukic doubled the advantage with a header in the 57th minute. The Croatian international finished off Wolfsburg for good with his fifth Bundesliga goal of the season in the 65th minute. Bayern has a perfect 15 points from five matches and are two points ahead of Frankfurt and seven on Dortmund. Dortmund went 2-0 up with goals by Lukasz Piszczek in the 25th minute and Marco Reus in the 28th. Frankfurt pulled things back with two quickfire goals within 97 seconds on two counter attacks. Dortmund substitute Mario Goetze then made it 3-2. But Anderson leveled in the 73rd minute with a header to make it 3-3. Schalke was hardly convincing but grabbed their third victory for 10 points and third place with a 3-0 win at home over Mainz. France immortalizes Zidane headbutt with 5-meter statue The infamous headbutt that French football legend Zinedine Zidane landed on an Italian during a World Cup final has been transformed into a giant statue and displayed in front of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The bronze work of art, simply titled “Headbutt”, was Wednesday attracting crowds of tourists and locals who jostled to have their photos taken in front of the five-meter statue. The sculpture is by Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed, subject of a retrospective exhibition in the Pompidou from Oct. 3 until next January. A much smaller version of the statue – which shows the two football players in the seconds after the headbutt, with the Italian player reeling after the attack – was previously exhibited by a New York art gallery. Zidane, who holds legendary status in France as a member of the national teams that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, was sent off in the 2006 World Cup final for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest. That was the then France captain's last ever professional match as a player and he later claimed he had reacted to slurs the Italian directed against his sister and mother. The statue will stay in its spot in front of the Pompidou till the end of the Abdessemed exhibition in January. — Agencies
