European Round-up: SPAIN Valencia prevented Barcelona from wrapping up the title for a second week in a row when they claimed a 3-0 win over relegation-threatened Alaves at the Mestalla yesterday.

The victory allowed Valencia to close the gap on the leaders to eight points with three matches left to play, but Barca, who have a game in hand, will retain the championship if they win away at Celta Vigo on Wednesday.

Barcelona, who beat struggling Cadiz 1-0 at Camp Nou on Saturday thanks to a powerful shot from Ronaldinho, lead the table on 76 points from 34 games. Valencia follow on 68 from 35.

Real Madrid are in third place, two points behind Valencia after their 1-0 win over fourth-placed Osasuna last night with Julio Baptista scoring from a penalty.

Malaga became the first team to drop out of the top flight after a 3-2 defeat at home to Racing Santander left them 10 points adrift of safety with just three games to play.

ITALY: Juventus maintained their three-point lead over AC Milan at the top of Serie A when they beat Siena 3-0 yesterday.

Three goals in the opening eight minutes from Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet and Adrian Mutu killed the contest. The result gave Juventus 82 points with two games of the season remaining.

Milan beat Livorno 2-0 thanks to a brace by Filippo Inzaghi.

Inter Milan remained a distant third on 74 points after a Marco Materazzi own goal cost them a 1-0 defeat at Empoli.

Fiorentina clung on to the fourth and final Champions League berth on 68 points despite losing 1-0 at Palermo.

AS Roma, fifth on 66 points, could have gone fourth themselves, but drew 4-4 with Chievo Verona.

At the other end of the table, Messina became the third side to be relegated following Treviso and Lecce after losing 3-0 to Reggina.