European roundup-United win 17the title, Inter stutter

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Manchester United retained the Premier League title, pipping Chelsea to the championship 10 days before the two sides meet in the Champions League final.

Inter Milan again wasted the chance to retain their Serie A crown in their penultimate game while the French Championship will also be decided on the last day of the season.

ENGLAND

The destination of the Premier League title remained uncertain until the last few minutes of a photo-finish season on Sunday before Manchester United eventually did enough to secure their 17th championship.

United beat Wigan Athletic 2-0 away with a first-half Cristiano Ronaldo penalty and an 80th-minute goal by Ryan Giggs to retain the title.

Chelsea ended up two points adrift after giving up an injury-time equaliser in a 1-1 home draw with Bolton Wanderers, a game where they had to better United's result because of the champions' superior goal difference.

There was drama at the bottom too as Fulham completed a remarkable escape by winning 1-0 at Portsmouth, their third away win in a row after going all season before that without one.

Reading and Birmingham City, who both won scoring four goals, went down instead, with bottom club Derby County.

Everton beat Newcastle United 3-1 to secure fifth place and a UEFA Cup slot while Sven-Goran Eriksson suffered the worst defeat of his career as his Manchester City side were hammered 8-1 at Middlesbrough.

- - - -

ITALY

Stage fright again struck Inter Milan with the Serie A leaders only drawing 2-2 at home to Siena on Sunday to send the title race to the final weekend of the season.

Just like last Sunday's 2-1 defeat by AC Milan, a win would have been enough for Inter to retain their scudetto.

Instead Roberto Mancini's side let mid-table Siena back into the game twice before Marco Materazzi had a penalty saved to compound their misery.

Second-placed AS Roma reduced the gap to a point with one game to play after Christian Panucci and Daniele De Rossi sealed a 2-1 win at home to Atalanta.

AC Milan are likely to miss out on the Champions League next season after a 3-1 defeat at Napoli and fourth-placed Fiorentina's 3-1 win over relegation-threatened Parma. The Florence club lead Carlo Ancelotti's side by two points.

Livorno were relegated after losing 1-0 at home to Torino.

- - - -

SPAIN

Atletico Madrid secured a place in the Champions League qualifiers after a goal from Diego Forlan earned them a 1-0 win over Deportivo Coruna and ensured they could finish no lower than fourth in the table.

Champions Real Madrid were held to a 2-2 draw at Real Zaragoza who dropped into the relegation zone after fellow strugglers Osasuna and Recreativo Huelva both managed to notch up priceless victories.

Valencia ensured their survival with a 5-1 thrashing of relegated neighbours Levante as did Getafe who drew 0-0 at Real Valladolid.

With one game to go Zaragoza, Osasuna, Recreativo and Valladolid can all still go down.

Barcelona, who were thumped 4-1 by Real in midweek, suffered yet another humiliating defeat when they surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to Real Mallorca in Frank Rijkaard's last game at the Nou Camp to spark a new round of protests from the discontented Barca fans.

- - - -

GERMANY

Werder Bremen thrashed Hanover 96 6-1 on Saturday to stay two points clear of Schalke 04 in the race for second place with one game to play, while Hansa Rostock and MSV Duisburg were relegated.

Bayern Munich wrapped up their 21st German league title last weekend, leaving their rivals to scrap it out for second spot and direct entry to the Champions League.

While Werder saw off Hanover with a fiesta at the Weser, Schalke kept alive their hopes with a nervy 1-0 win at home over Eintracht Frankfurt, a Mladen Krstajic header securing victory.

Rostock's and Duisburg's chances of escaping the drop were ended by home defeats while Cologne won promotion back to the Bundesliga after two seasons in the second division.

- - - -

FRANCE

Olympique Lyon stayed two points clear at the top of Ligue 1 with one match left after a 1-0 home win over Nancy on Saturday.

Nancy's Brazilian defender Andre Luiz deflected the ball into his own net on the hour to put Lyon on 76 points from 37 games, two points ahead of second-placed Girondins Bordeaux, who beat Sochaux 2-0 to set up a thrilling finale.

Lyon, who have a much better goal difference than Bordeaux, need only a draw when they visit lowly AJ Auxerre next Saturday to make sure of a seventh successive title.

At the other end, Racing Strasbourg will follow bottom side Metz down to the second division after a 4-1 home defeat by Caen while Paris St Germain moved out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 home draw with St Etienne.

NETHERLANDS NEC Nijmegen cruised to a 3-1 away victory over Groningen in a Dutch play-off second leg on Sunday to advance to the final 4-1 on aggregate and edge closer to a place in next season's UEFA Cup.

NEC will face either Heerenveen or NAC Breda in the final. Heerenveen won the first leg 2-0 on Thursday and will travel Breda on Monday.

(Editing by Padraic Halpin)