MILAN. April 3: Parma beat AC Milan 1-0 to join (he race for one of Italy's slots in the next European Champions League on Sunday night, while Juventus and Lazio prepared for the final sprint to the Serie A title. reports AFP.
The Italian league is a two-horse race between Juve and Lazio, now separated by just three points (59 to 56) after Saturday's victory for the Rome club in Turin.
The top two sides are guaranteed a place in the Champions League. But the battle for one of two places in the preliminary' rounds is hotting up. with Parma's victory propelling them into joint third place on 49pts with AC Milan and Inter.
Argentina's Hernan Crespo, the second highest scorer in the Serie A behind Milan's Andriy Shevchenko, secured Parma’s precious victory - collecting a pass from Fabio Cannavaro and firing home his 18th goal of the season midway through the second half. Though Milan slumped to defeat. Inter and AS Roma's hopes of a top four finish fared little better as they were both held to 1-1 draws. It was a bad day all round for goals - with four 1 -0 home wins, two 1 -1 stalemates and a 0-0 draw.
Inter were caught out by a late equaliser against Regglna at San Slro.
Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba gave them a great start, beating Reggina's off-side trap as he latched on to a through-ball from Chile's Ivan Zamorano to score in the 13th minute.
But two points went down the drain in the 82nd minute when substitute Davide Pos-sanzini rifled home Reggina's equalizer.
Disgruntled home fans chanted "Get down to work” as Inter left the field, having already made their feelings felt after Reggina's equaliser.
Inter coach Marcello Lippi said: "It’s a period in which the team are not settled and are not able to take things calmly. And they get whistles froiii the crowd that are fully justified when the matches slip away from them at the very end.
Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata scored for a decimated AS Roma side as they drew with Udinese before a hostile home crowd who whistled before, during and after the match.
Nakata scored in the 39th minute after a move which started with a long ball upfield from Brazilian Assuncao. Marco Delvecchio nodded it back for Paolo Poggi, who picked out Nakata for a neat lob over the Udinese keeper.
But it was all square six minutes after the re-start when Udinese striker Roberto Muzzi provided the cross and Argentinian Roberto Sosa supplied the first-time shot.
The Olympic stadium fans were whistling again at the end as Roma, without seven first-team regulars through injury and another through supen-sion, added a draw to a run of three consecutive defeats.
Parma's subsequent win left them three points adrift of the other trio, down in sixth place on 46pts.
Roma coach Fabio Capello said: "It was a balanced match We had chances to score which unfortuntately we didn’t take.
"And the only time we really suffered was in the last 15 minutes when Udinese made their substitutions and their new players were fresh and fast, and caused us problems.
Elsewhere, it was a story of 1-0 wins, with Perugia's victory over Torino making the Turin club even more likely candidates for relegation back to the Serie B.
Nicola Amoruso nodded home the 21st minute winner
after a free-kick swept over by Croatian teammate Milan Ra-pajc.
Bari's Swedish midfielder Daniel Andersson converted a 22th minute penalty as they ^dgpd Cagliari, after 17-year-old wonderkid Antonio Cas-sano was felled in the penally area.
In another battle between relegation strugglers. Verona midfielder Christian Brocchi blasted home their 68th minute winner from the edge of the area against bottom club Piacenza.
Venezia meanwhile finished up goalless with Lecce.