MILAN: Atalanta held on to third place in Serie A on Sunday after beating high-flying Bologna 2-0 to recharge their bid for Champions League football next season.

Gian Piero Gasperini`s side are four points above Bologna, who are fifth, thanks to a third-minute tap-in from Mateo Retegui and Mario Pasalic`s first league goal since November not long afterwards.

Retegui`s early strike was his 26th of the season in all competitions for Atalanta, and the Italy forward also set up Pasalic to guide home a delicate volley with his brilliant cross in the 21st minute.

Those goals ended a three-match losing run without scoring for Atalanta and were their first in a home league fixture since the start of February.

`Pm happy because it had been a few months that we`d not won here, we need to make our home matches count in the final weeks of the season,` said Pasalic.

`Scoring straight away really helped us because it gives you more freedom to play.

Atalanta came into Sunday`s key clash with a topfour rival without a Serie A win in Bergamo since before Christmas but they stopped the home rot with a mature performance at the Gewiss Stadium.

Bologna looked to have the initiative in a tightfight for two Champions League spots, with Inter and Napoli contesting the league title and almost guarantee of qualification.

Vincenzo Italiano`s team had won five of their previous six matches and were unluclcy to only draw with second-placed Napoli last weekend.

The only negative note for Gasperini was seeing defender Sead Kolasinac being stretchered off with a knee injury just before half-time, the latest in a long line of physical problems for both the Bosnian and Atalanta this term.

Earlier on Sunday, 16thplaced Parma took an important point as they recorded 0-0 draw away againstin-formFiorentina.

Fiorentina, eighth, had won four of their last five games in all competitions,including a 2-1 win against NK Celje in the UEFA Conference League first leg.

Meanwhile, Hellas Verona registered a third consecutive draw as their match against Genoa ended in a goalless stalemate.

Verona are 14th with 32 points while Genoa are 12th with 39 points.

INTER CONSOLIDATE TOP SPOT On Saturday, Inter Milan cruised to a 3-1 win at home to Cagliari thanks to goals from Marko Arnautovic, Lautaro Martinez and Yann Aurel Bisseck to keep their grip on top spot in Serie A.

Inter are six points clear of second-placed Napoli, who host lowly Empoli on Monday, with six rounds to go.

Inter`s attention will besquarely on their Champions League fixture against Bayern Munich who they lead 2-1 following Tuesday`s first leg in Germany.

`We`ll go in that match with a lot of confidence even though we know that we`ll be playing one of the three or four best teams in the world,` assured Inter manager Simone Inzaghi.

`We`ve need to repeat the pace, aggression and organisation of our performance in the first leg.

Earlier on Saturday, Venezia boosted their survival hopes by beating rock-bottom Monza 1-0 and moving to within two points of Lecce who sit just outside the relegation zone and lost 2-1 at Juventus.

Juve moved up to fourth on 59 points thanks to a fine stril(e from Teun Koopmeiners after less than two minutes and Kenan Yildiz`s effort in the 33rd minute in Turin.

Igor Tudor remains unbeaten three games into hisreign afterreplacing the sacked Thiago Mot ta last month and is on course to guide Juve to the Champions League.

The victory ensured that Juventus remained fourth this weekend, two points ahead of Bologna.

`That`s our goal (the Champions League), we have to do everything we can to get there and win every game we have remaining,` said Juve`s Manuel Locatelli.-Agencies