Milan miss chance to close Serie A gap with idle Inter

AC MILAN missed the chance to close the gap on Serie A leaders Inter Milan to six points as they were held to a 1-1 draw by relegation-threatened Livorno yesterday. Massimo Ambrosini opened the scoring for Milan in the final minute of the first half but Livorno levelled eight minutes after the break thanks to Cristiano Lucarelli.

Milan move to eight points behind Inter, whose match at Parma was postponed due to snow. New Juventus manager Alberto Zaccheroni had to settle for a point in his first match in charge as they played out a 1-1 draw with Lazio in Turin last night. The former Lazio manager saw his team take the lead through Alessandro Del Piero's 70th-minute penalty. However, that was as good as it got for Juve as Stefano Mauri grabbed the equaliser eight minutes later by volleying home a cross from Mauro Zarate.

In Spain, there were away wins for leading duo Barcelona and Real Madrid on Saturday.

Winger Pedro scored the only goal of the game at el Molinon as Barca beat Sporting Gijon, while in La Coruna Real Madrid celebrated their first win at the Riazor in almost two decades as they beat Deportivo 3-1. Esteban Granero headed the visitors in front and Karim Benzema slotted home the second five minutes before half-time. The hosts pulled one back with four minutes to go when Riki converted a penalty, but Benzema made sure of the points in the first minute of stoppage time.

Sevilla jumped to fourth place with a 2-1 home victory over Valencia last night.

Three goals in four minutes late in the first half saw Bayer Leverkusen return to the top of the Bundesliga with a convincing 3-1 victory at home over Freiburg.

Stefan Kiessling opened the scoring in the 36th minute and was followed just a minute later by Eren Derdiyok, before Sami Hyypia made it 3-0 after 39 minutes. Felix Bastians cut the deficit to 3-1 in the 66th minute.