AS Roma hammered Palermo 5-0 for its fifth successive Serie A win Sunday, a triumph overshadowed by coach Luciano Spalletti's decision to drop Francesco Totti and adorned by Edin Dzeko's unreal miss of the season in front of goal. Dzeko recovered from his almost comical blunder to net twice while Mohamed Salah, with his own double, and Seydou Keita also scored to make it an unhappy return to the Palermo bench for coach Giuseppe Iachini, who was recalled last week after being sacked in November. Lowly Palermo has had four different coaches in the Iachini's absence and the most recent, Giovanni Bosi, was sacked after one match. Third-placed Fiorentina kept up the pressure on pacesetters Juventus and Napoli with a 3-2 win at Atalanta where all the goals came in a breathless last 25 minutes. Fiorentina's win left it on 52 points, four behind second-placed Napoli which will go back to the top if it beats AC Milan at home Monday. Leader Juventus has 58 points after Friday's 0-0 draw at Bologna. Roma moved into fourth place in the table on 50 points. Madrid loses ground In Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal but missed a penalty as Real Madrid was held 1-1 at Malaga Sunday to fall nine points behind Spanish league leader Barcelona. Second-place Atletico Madrid could only manage a 0-0 draw against Villarreal and is eight points behind Barcelona. Madrid needed a victory to keep pace with Barcelona, after the Catalan side won 2-1 at Las Palmas Saturday. Atletico Madrid also had to win, but Diego Simeone's team failed to break through Villarreal's defense at the Vicente Calderon Stadium. The draw extended Villarreal's 12-game unbeaten streak and kept the club in fourth place, five points behind Atletico Madrid. Atletico and Real Madrid have 13 games left to try to catch Barcelona. No team has come back from nine points down to win the title with this many matches left in the Spanish league. Also Sunday, Gary Neville's Valencia won its second in a row after enduring a 12-game winless streak in the league. The 2-1 win at Granada moved the team to 11th in the standings. In other results, fifth-place Sevilla drew 2-2 at Rayo Vallecano, while eighth-place Athletic Bilbao lost 1-0 at home to ninth-place Real Sociedad in the Basque derby. Leverkusen coach defies ref Borussia Dortmund's 1-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga was interrupted for eight minutes Sunday after the home side's coach refused to be sent to the stands. Referee Felix Zwayer said he sent off Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt "because of repeated unsporting actions." Schmidt said later he regretted his actions, adding he had wanted an "explanation" from the ref. Later, Schalke ended Stuttgart's five-game winning run with a 1-1 draw, and Koo Ja-cheol's brilliant solo effort was enough for Augsburg to win 1-0 at bottom side Hannover. — Agencies
