European Round-up: Serie A leaders AC Milan offered a glimmer of hope to their title challengers after being held to a 1-1 draw at lowly Modena yesterday.

Modena's Nicola Amoruso opened the scoring before Jon Dahl Tomasson got Milan's equaliser.

AS Roma returned to second place with a 3-0 win at Lecce, to close the gap at the top to nine points.

Third-placed Juventus' hopes of retaining their title were dashed wen they went down 3-2 to Inter Milan at the San Siro.

Obafemi Martens opened the scoring for Inter before team-mate Kily Gonzalez scored an own goal to level the sides. Christian Vieri put Inter in front and Dejan Stankovic made it certain on 47 minutes

Milan's second successive draw - they had a 2-2 result at Chievo Verona last week - leaves them on 69 points with Roma on 60 points but with a game in hand. Milan stay on 59 points.

Winless Ancona were relegated after their 1-0 home defeat to Sampdoria left them stranded on seven points at the foot of the table.

In La Liga, Valencia maintained their pursuit of Real Madrid with a 2-0 win over basement side Murcia, which leaves the east coast side a single point adrift of Real.

The Madrid side claimed a somewhat fortunate win over Albacete on Saturday and lead the table on 67 points from 31 matches.

Deportivo Coruna, meanwhile, effectively waved goodbye to their hopes of winning the Spanish title when they surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Real Betis.

The result means that with just seven games left, the Galicians now trail leaders Real Madrid by 10 points.

Barcelona, who were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Villarreal on Saturday, are fourth on 56 points but have a game in hand after last week's match against Betis was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

In Germany's Bundesliga, leaders Werder Bremen saw their march towards the title slowed as they drew 1-1 at home to SC Freiburg yesterday.

Their second consecutive draw left the northerners seven points clear with seven matches left.