Barcelona kept their faint Spanish League title hopes alive with a 4-1 win at home to Las Palmas yesterday. Llorenc Serra Ferrer's side, who take on Liverpool in the first leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final on Thursday, fell behind to a clever chip from Guayre after eight minutes.
But Barcelona responded brilliantly, levelling with a Gabri header on the quarter-hour and taking the lead with a first-time Marc Overmars shot a minute before half-time. Two goals in three minutes from Rivaldo and Dani wrapped up the game in the second half to leave Barcelona level on points with third-placed Valencia.
Barca remain 10 points behind Real Madrid, who maintained their advantage at the top of the table with a 1-0 win at home to Numancia on Saturday.
Deportivo La Coruna won 4-2 at home to Villarreal while Valencia were beaten 1-0 at home to Espanyol.
In Italy, Brescia's Roberto Baggio scored a late equaliser to grab a 1-1 draw at Juventus yesterday and leave his former club nine points adrift of Italian first division leaders AS Roma.
It was a fine strike from Baggio to cancel out Gianluca Zambrotta's 30th-minute opener but one that will not be appreciated by fans of the Turin club he once joined for a world record fee from Fiorentina with second-placed Juve's title ambitions now severely compromised.
Roma had been trailing Verona at the break after a Mauro German Camoranesi goal but won 3-1 with an own goal from Luigi Apolloni and further strikes from Gabriel Batistuta and Vincenzo Montella.
How Euro teams fared
- UEFA Champions League
Bayern Munich - 2 Werder Bremen - 3 Galatasaray - 2 Besiktas - 0 Real Madrid - 1 Numancia - 0 Deportivo Coruna - 4 Villarreal - 2 Valencia - 0 Espanyol - 1
- UEFA Cup
Barcelona - 4 Las Palmas - 1 Real Oviedo - 3 Alaves - 3 Kaiserslautern - 1 Borussia Dortmund 4
- Spanish League
Real Mallorca - 1 Real Sociedad - 1 R Santander - 2 Real Zaragoza - 1 Real Valladolid - 1 Rayo Vallecano - 3 Real Oviedo - 3 Alaves - 3 Barcelona - 4 Las Palmas - 1 Athletic Bilbao - 0 Real Osasuna - 1 Real Madrid - 1 Numancia - 0 Deportivo Coruna - 4 Villarreal - 2 Valencia - 0 Espanyol - 1 Malaga - 1 Celta Vigo - 4
Real Madrid - 2818 5561 3059 Deportivo Coruna - 2816 6656 3354 Valencia2814 7743 2249 Barcelona 2814 7759 3949 Mallorca 2812 10638 3446
Villarreal 2812 61040 3642
Celta Vigo - 2811 8939 3941 Alaves 28117 10423 740
- Italian League
AC Milan - 1 Lazio - 0 Atalanta - 1 Napoli - 1 Juventus - 1 Brescia - 1 Parma - 0 Bologna - 0 Perugia - 2 Inter Milan - 3 Reggina - 1 Udinese - 1 AS Roma - 3 Verona - 1 Bari - 3 Lecce - 2 Vicenza - 1 Fiorentina - 1
AS Roma - 2418 4247 1858 Juventus< li 2414 7341 2049 Lazio< li 2414 4644 2746 Parma< li 2411 7638 2140 Atalanta< li 249 10529 2037
Inter Milan - 2410 7732 2837 AC Milan - 249 9638 3536 Bologna< li 249 6929 2933
