Soccer Round-Up: Inter Milan's dreams of lifting a first Italian championship crown since 1989 suffered a major setback yesterday when they went down to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Atalanta.
The result completed a miserable week for Hector Cuper's team after they had lost 1-0 to Feyenoord in the first leg of the UEFA Cup semi-finals on Thursday.
However, Inter remain two points clear at the top with four games to play after closest rivals and defending champions Roma could only draw 2-2 with bottom side Venezia.
Luigi Sala headed Atalanta into the lead on the stroke of half-time after getting on the end of a cross from Damiano Zenoni before Italian international Christian Vieri, who was rested for the UEFA Cup tie, equalised two minutes into the second period.
However, Daniele Berretta stepped up to fire in the 62nd minute winner. The goal stunned the 40,000 crowd at the San Siro and they were left even more perplexed by the decision of Cuper to keep Ronaldo on the bench.
Meanwhile, Roma were indebted to Vincenzo Montella for saving their blushes at Venezia, who have already been relegated. Montella scored two penalties in the last three minutes to give Roma a point and keep them two points behind Inter.
Roma were stunned when they fell 2-0 down through goals by Filippo Maniero and Ivone De Franceschi after 62 and 80 minutes.
Juventus were the big winners of the day, beating Perugia 4-0 to move on to 59 points, three behind the leaders.
Alessandro del Piero scored twice from the penalty spot, in the 45th minute and in the 62nd minute. French star David Trezeguet had opened the scoring after nine minutes with Cristian Zenoni adding another in the 57th minute.
SPAIN: Valencia proved their intention to fight Real Madrid all the way for the Primera Liga title with a 4-0 demolition of Real Sociedad last night.
If Real Madrid's victory on Saturday night heaped the pressure on Valencia, they showed no sign of it. Ruben Baraja, Kily Gonzalez, Miguel Angulo and Miguel Mista put the visitors to the sword as "Los Che" moved level on points with Madrid.
Celta Vigo's Champions League ambitions took a knock as Espanyol recorded a 2-0 win which probably ensures their Primera Liga survival and also did city rivals Barcelona a favour.
Espanyol were seven points clear of the drop-zone at kick-off, and there are just five more matches to play now. A point would have elevated Celta to fourth, Spain's final qualifying place for the Champions League, at the expense of Barca.
Celta trailed to Juan Palencia's 22nd-minute strike at half-time. Raul Tamudo got the second goal 15 minutes from the end, and could easily have had a hat-trick.
Malaga boosted their chances of claiming a UEFA Cup slot with a 2-0 win over Tenerife.
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