Villa goal hauls Barcelona back

European round-up/SPANISH PRIMERA LIGA: Valencia breathed new life into the Spanish title race yesterday, snatching a 1-0 win at home to Barcelona that left them just six points behind the champions at the top of the table.

The match was decided by a dreadful error from Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes who scuffed the ball into the path of David Villa shortly before half-time, allowing the Valencia striker to lob the ball into an empty net.

Barca, who were missing influential trio Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Deco but welcomed back leading striker Samuel Eto'o from the African Cup of Nations, were unable to prise open Valencia's rugged defence as they slipped to a second successive league defeat.

Frank Rijkaard's side lead the standings on 52 points with Valencia on 46 and Real Madrid on 45 after their 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Osasuna are fourth on 43 points, four clear of Celta Vigo who reclaimed fifth place after a penalty from Fernando Baiano gave them a 1-0 win at home to Villarreal on Saturday.

ITALIAN SERIE A: Juventus's grip on Serie A tightened to a stranglehold yesterday when a late goal by Alessandro Del Piero gave them a 2-1 win at nearest challengers Inter Milan.

The striker's 85th-minute free kick gave Juve 66 points from 25 matches, 12 ahead of AC Milan, who moved up to second with a 4-1 win at Reggina. Inter slipped to third, also on 54 points.

It was a lapse of concentration by Inter that allowed the visitors to take a 63rd-minute lead.

Mauro Camoranesi crossed to the far post where Zlatan Ibrahimovic took advantage of a defensive mix-up between Javier Zanetti and Ivan Cordoba to sneak in and slot the ball past Julio Cesar in the Inter goal.

Walter Samuel hauled Inter level in the 74th minute when he headed a corner past Gianluigi Buffon but with five minutes left a foul on Pavel Nedved just outside the area gave Del Piero the chance to curl a perfectly-weighted free kick into the top corner.

Alvaro Recoba almost snatched a point for Inter when he blasted a free kick against the woodwork in stoppage time but Juve hung on to leave Inter's Serie A challenge in tatters.