ROME: Forget about extending their record run of nine straight Serie A titles.

At this rate, Juventus may not even qualify for the Champions League.

Atalanta, the league’s ongoing Cinderella story, beat the Bianconeri 1-0 with a late goal from Ruslan Malinovskyi on Sunday to leapfrog Andrea Agnelli’s club into third place.

The defeat came on a day of reports that Juve are part of a group of European heavyweights renewing threats to walk away from the Champions League and create a Super League.

Juve dropped to fourth, which carries the final Champions League berth, two points behind Atalanta and had their advantage over fifth-place Napoli cut to two points after Napoli held leaders Inter Milan to a 1-1 draw.

Inter hold a nine-point advantage on AC Milan as they target a first league title since 2010. Milan earlier got back winning in the San Siro after two months 2-1 against Genoa.

“We have to focus only on ourselves,” Juve coach Andrea Pirlo said. I am convinced there will be no problem achieving our objective.”

Juve have won only one of their last four matches and lost twice in that span with the other defeat coming at home against promoted Benevento last month.

What’s more, Atalanta now also hold the advantage over Juve if a tiebreaker is needed. Head-to-head records are the first criteria used in Italy and the teams drew 1-1 in December.

Juve were missing an injured Cristiano Ronaldo and produced few chances in Bergamo before Malinovskyi’s shot in the 87th minute took a major deflection off Alex Sandro and sent goalkeeper Wojciech Szcezsny the wrong way.

It marked Atalanta’s first victory over Juventus in Serie A in more than two decades since February 2001.

It was just the latest in a series of exploits from Atalanta, who reached the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League.

“This win means we can beat them,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said. “The victory is justified and we are proud of it.”

In Naples, top Inter scorer Romelu Lukaku rattled the woodwork either side of Napoli’s opener, an own-goal following a blunder from visiting goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Lorenzo Insigne tried to connect with Victor Osimhen to finish off with Handanovic intercepting the ball only to lose control after colliding with Stefan de Vrij sending into his own net.

Christian Eriksen equalised after the break for Inter with a booming effort from long-distance.

“I’m very happy and proud of this group of guys who have grown significantly in many ways,” said Inter coach Antonio Conte. “On other occasions we would have lost the game, we would have fallen on that goal conceded. Instead the team reacted, they know what they are capable of and want to fight for something important.”

In Milan, Gianluca Scamacca’s 68th-minute own goal kept the seven-time European champions on course for a return to Champions League football next season.

Stefano Pioli’s side had not won their last six games in the San Siro in all competitions and were playing without suspended forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“We wasted a lot, we could have finished it earlier, but the important thing is the spirit to stay in the game until the very end,” said Pioli, who has given up on catching Inter.

“Inter have taken too many points to think that we can still fight for the Scudetto. Winning was important. We will have to face important teams, Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, from here to the end they will all be difficult.”

Ante Rebic put Milan ahead in the 13th minute with Rafael Leao, taking the place of Ibrahimovic, missing a chance for a second minutes later.

A Mattia Destro header against his former club pulled 14th-placed Genoa level eight minutes before the break.

Mario Mandzukic came off the bench for his first appearance in over two months just after the hour and had a role in the winning goal, which Scamacca guided past his own goalkeeper from a Hakan Calhanoglu corner.

Lazio also got two own-goals in a 5-3 win over Benevento for their fifth straight victory, moving the sixth-placed Roman club within four points of Juve.

Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi missed the game against his brother and coaching counterpart Filippo Inzaghi with the coronavirus.

Ciro Immobile scored twice — the first was his 150th in Serie A — and Joaquin Correa converted a penalty for Lazio, who also got own-goals from Fabio Depaoli and Lorenzo Montipo.

AS Roma’s Champions League ambitions took a knock with a 3-1 defeat at Torino, who boosted their chances of top-flight survival.

Roma have taken four points from the last five games, and are stuck in seventh position, eight points off the Champions League berths.

Also, Bologna beat promoted Spezia 4-1.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021