Juve beat Milan to close in on Inter

Simon Evans, Reuters, Milan, Italy

Italian champion Juventus moved within a point of Serie A leader Inter Milan after an impressive 2-1 win over title challenger AC Milan on Sunday.

Early goals from Marco Di Vaio and Lilian Thuram put Juventus 2-0 up and although Milan fought back with an Andrea Pirlo penalty in the 32nd minute, Marcello Lippi's side shut up shop in the second half to secure a vital win.

Inter, which suffered its first league defeat of the season on Saturday with a 2-1 home loss to Udinese, leads with 22 points and Juventus is now second on 21.

Milan slips down to third while Chievo, which crushed bottom club Atalanta 4-1, is fourth and Lazio slips to fifth after it was held to a goalless draw at home by Parma on Sunday -- Sinisa Mihajlovic missing a penalty for Lazio.

Juve went ahead in just the eighth minute after Alessandro Del Piero raced on to a pass from Pavel Nedved and slipped the ball across the face of the Milan goal and into the path of Di Vaio who made no mistake from close-range.

Its lead was doubled in the 21st minute through another swift counter-attack, Del Piero again playing a key role as he fed overlapping Thuram who beat Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati with a well-placed right-foot shot.

Milan got itself back into the game in the 32nd minute through Pirlo's penalty after Juve defender Alessandro Birindelli had handled inside the area.

Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a full stretch save to keep out a Rivaldo shot.

Milan's former Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti switched things around in the second half as he tried to add some sparkle to a team looking well below its best.

But the introduction of Brazilian Serginho on the left flank and Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko were both canceled out by subsequent changes from Juve coach Marcello Lippi and Milan struggled to break through.

Indeed Juventus would have grabbed a third had Abbiati not made a fine save to keep out a powerful Nedved strike.

It was the fourth successive season that Juve had beaten Milan at the Delle Alpi stadium.

In London, Leeds United survived a strong West Ham United comeback to earn a thrilling 4-3 victory at Upton Park in the English premier league on Sunday and ease the pressure on its manager Terry Venables.

In Sunday's other game England striker Kevin Phillips scored his first goal in six months to help Sunderland to a 2-0 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

In Berlin, once-great Borussia Moenchengladbach bounced back to form with a 3-0 Bundesliga victory over bottom club Energie Cottbus on Sunday.

In the other Sunday game Hertha Berlin moved up to sixth with a 2-1 victory over easterners Hansa Rostock.

In Madrid, two goals from in-form Uruguayan striker Walter Pandiani helped Real Mallorca to a club record sixth consecutive win as it beat Alaves 3-1 at Son Moix in the Spanish first division on Sunday.

The game of the day, though, was at the Calderon where Atletico Madrid forward Jose Mari and Athletic Bilbao striker Ismael Urzaiz both notched hat-tricks as the two sides fought out a frenetic 3-3 draw.

Celta de Vigo put its midweek Cup defeat at the hand of second division Numancia behind it, with a 1-0 win over Espanol thanks to an 18th minute strike from midfielder Jose Ignacio.