Juventus maintain their lead

Antonio Conte and Alessandro Del Piero scored as Juventus maintained their fourpoint lead at the top of Serie A yesterday with…

Antonio Conte and Alessandro Del Piero scored as Juventus maintained their fourpoint lead at the top of Serie A yesterday with a 2-0 win over Bari but Inter Milan moved into third place with a 2-1 derby win over AC Milan.

Inter leapfrogged over Milan and AS Roma to move three points behind second placed Lazio and seven points behind Juventus.

A Marco Delvecchio strike gave Roma a hard-earned 1-0 win at home to struggling Torino, while Pavel Nedved grabbed the only goal of the game in Lazio's away win at Lecce.

AC Milan were forced to make an early substitution when Alessandro Costacurta limped off in the 25th minute to be replaced by Luigi Sala.

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Costacurta's absence appeared to effect Alberto Zaccheroni's side and Inter took the lead two minutes before the break when Alvaro Recoba slipped a low cross to Ivan Zamorano and the Chilean international made no mistake from close range.

It was no surprise when Inter doubled their lead in the 63rd minute when Clarence Seedorf and Zamorano linked up well to set up Luigi Di Biagio's fine right foot shot.

Spanish league leaders Deportivo Coruna were beaten 1-0 at Malaga to open up the title race once again.

Deportivo, beaten 5-1 in the UEFA Cup at Arsenal in midweek and without a league win on their travels since December, were looking to put their European troubles behind them and extend their lead at the top of the table to seven points.

But Javier Irureta's side were undone by a Dario Silva strike on three minutes. After 27 matches, Deportivo remain at the head of the standings with 49 points, four clear of Alaves.

In Germany, leaders Bayern Munich slumped to a 2-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart in the last Bundesliga appearance of Lothar Matthaeus. Second-placed Bayer Leverkusen closed the gap on Bayern to two with a 3-1 win.