European roundup: Juventus toiling for topfour after losing to Milan
Juventus started the season hoping to win a 10th straight Serie A title but instead find themselves in danger of missing out on a Champions League spot after a 3-0 home defeat by top-four rivals Milan left them fifth with three games left.
Goals from Brahim Díaz, Ante Rebic and Fikayo Tomori secured the win and sent Milan up to third on 72 points from 35 matches, leaving Juve a point behind fourth-placed Napoli and needing teams to drop points as they battle for a top-four finish.
Díaz curled home a stunning opener just before the break to give the visitors the half-time lead and they had a chance to extend the advantage in the 56th minute only for Franck Kessie’s penalty to be saved by Wojciech Szczesny.
That miss did not prove costly, however, as the substitute Rebic arrowed a fine strike into the net 12 minutes from time before Tomori, on loan from Chelsea, headed a third goal four minutes later.
Atalanta’s fantastic season continued as they comprehensively beat already-relegated Parma 5-2 to move back up to second. Atalanta took the lead in the 12th minute through Ruslan Malinovskiy, with Matteo Pessina sweeping home the second seven minutes after the break.
Luis Muriel took his Serie A tally to 21 goals for the season with two more for the league’s top goalscorers, either side of a Juan Brunetta goal for the hosts. Simon Sohm added another for Parma late on but there was still time for Aleksey Miranchuk’s stoppage-time fifth goal for Atalanta.
The Roma captain, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Borja Mayoral both struck twice to help keep their team’s faint hopes of qualifying for next season’s Europa League alive with the 5-0 win over bottom side Crotone. Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the other goal in the victory which moved Roma up to seventh on 58 points with three matches left, six behind sixth-placed Lazio who have a game in hand.
Cagliari emerged victorious from a huge relegation clash at Benevento, winning 3-1 to climb to 16th, four points clear of their opponents who are still in the relegation mire in 18th. Torino in 15th also boosted their survival bid by earning a 1-1 draw at Verona to pull four clear of the bottom three, while Sassuolo won 2-1 at Genoa.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Ligue 1 title hopes took a major knock on Sunday when the defending champions were held to a 1-1 draw at Rennes, leaving leaders Lille with a three-point advantage with two games remaining.
Neymar opened the scoring with a penalty on the stroke of half-time but Serhou Guirassy equalised in the 70th minute to leave PSG, who finished with 10 men after Presnel Kimpembe was sent off in the 87th minute, on 76 points.
Lille, on 79 after thrashing Lens 3-0 away on Friday, need four points from their last two matches against midtable teams St Etienne and Angers to guarantee their first Ligue 1 title since 2011.
Monaco are third on 74 points after beating Reims 1-0 away earlier on Sunday, one point ahead of fourthplaced Lyon.