Palermo eying Champions League

Unheralded Palermo underlined their bid for a place in the Champions League next season as well as their burgeoning domestic title credentials with a 1-0 win over Livorno on Sunday.

The three points, garnered courtesy of Fabrizio Miccoli’s goal nine minutes from the end, took the Sicilians into fourth place in Serie A, two points clear of Juventus, who Palermo had seen off in Turin last weekend.

Juve slid back a place into fifth having won 2-1 at Fiorentina on Saturday.

Sampdoria are sixth, a point further back, after a 2-1 home win over Lazio.

The visitors took a seventh-minute lead through Sergio Floccari but quickfire ripostes around the half hour mark from Stefano Guberti and Giampaolo Pazzini proved enough for Samp to take the three points.

While Palermo rise, so Napoli are sliding back and their top four aspirations took a knock after a 2-1 loss at Bologna, for whom Marcelo Zalayeta and Brazilian Adailton were on target inside the opening 12 minutes.

Leandro Rinaudo scored Napoli’s consolation as they dropped to seventh, five points adrift of Palermo, after a run of just four points from a possible 18 in their last six outings.

Champions Inter Milan were set to extend their three-point lead at the top of the table over neighbours AC Milan with an evening home win over midtable outfit Genoa.

Inter are sitting pretty after Milan, for whom David Beckham appeared for just 18 minutes from the bench, and AS Roma cancelled themselves out in a goalless stalemate Saturday at the Olympic Stadium.

Milan coach Leonardo insisted his men can overturn their 3-2 Champions League deficit against Manchester United next week.

“I have great faith in this team, many times I’ve asked a lot of them. We believe in ourselves, we have to win well at Old Trafford and we’ll go there trying to score goals.”

Elsewhere Sunday, Cagliari, hoping for a Europa League finish, dropped home points in a 2-2 draw with struggling Catania to remain two points behind Napoli, while Bari beat Chievo 1-0 in a midtable meeting.

Atalanta and Siena did their hopes of avoiding the drop little good with home draws, 0-0 against Udinese and 1-1 against Parma respectively.