Ipswich 0, Lazio 2: Disgraced Serie A outfit Lazio beat Ipswich Town 2-0 at Portman Road last night in the glamour match agreed as part of the deal which took keeper Matteo Sereni to Rome.

Ipswich 0, Lazio 2

Disgraced Serie A outfit Lazio beat Ipswich Town 2-0 at Portman Road last night in the glamour match agreed as part of the deal which took keeper Matteo Sereni to Rome.

The Italian giants were spared their Serie A status this week after successfully appealing against their demotion in the wake of the summer's match-fixing scandal.

And there was never any question about their superiority over Coca-Cola Championship hosts Town as they won with a brace from Tommaso Rocchi, who opened the scoring after eight minutes and doubled his tally early in the second half.

It added up to an unhappy first home game in charge for Town manager Jim Magilton, flanked at Portman Road by former Norwich coach Steve Foley.

They will be hoping his team can find another gear when the season starts in earnest next Saturday against Crystal Palace, whose new manager, Peter Taylor was in the 10,000-crowd to see for himself the obvious defensive shortcomings.

On the positive side were the performances of Dean Bowditch and Darren Currie, while in the second half Alan Lee looked strong - his shot against the bar being the nearest Town came to scoring.

An otherwise strong Lazio side was missing their two members of Italy's World Cup winning squad, keeper Angelo Peruzzi, who is still on holiday, and Massimo Oddo, who is on the verge of joining AC Milan.

Town's Owen Garvan made his return from lengthy injury problems with a 15-minute spell.

t Ipswich: Supple, Wilnis (Barron, 75) Sito, De Vos, Richards (Parkin, 85) Naylor, Peters, Forster (Haynes, 61) Bowditch (Lee, 46) Currie (Garvan, 75) Westlake. Subs not used: Clarke, Price.

t Lazio: Ballotta, Belleri, Stendardo (Siviglia, 46) Cribari, Zauri, Manfredini de Silvestri, 61) Mutarelli, Ledesma (Baronio, 70) Pandev (Buelli, 83) Mauri, (Bontto, 78) Rocchi (Tare, 78) Subs not used: Berni, Diakite, Quadri, Buelli, Greco, Santarelli.

t Referee: Andre Marriner.

t Attendance: 10,365