AS Roma's players Francesco Totti (L) Fabio Simplicio (C) and Fernando Gago walk off the pitch at the end of their Serie A match against Chievo at Bentegodi Stadium in Verona, Italy, Tuesday. — AP ROME – Roma's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season all but mathematically died following a 0-0 draw at Chievo in sopping wet conditions Tuesday. Roma trails the four teams level on 55 points in the tight battle for third place by three points, although it has only two games left now, one less than its rival. To finish third it would need to win its last two matches and hope that none of Napoli, Lazio, Inter Milan or Udinese take more than three points from three games. And in fairness they were lucky to come away from Verona with a point in a match made hugely difficult by wet conditions that affected the way the ball rolled and bounced. Chievo had much the better of the chances and Roma barely troubled home goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino. Villarreal boosts survival bid Villarreal took a big stride towards securing its top-flight status when it beat Sporting Gijon 3-2 in a tense and ill-tempered La Liga relegation battle Tuesday to move seven points clear of the drop zone. The team known as ‘yellow submarine' after its canary-colored shirts had their season wrecked by injuries to key players but now look safe with two games left to play. Javier Clemente's Gijon, by contrast, is all-but condemned to second division football next term as its valiant effort to avoid the drop ran out of steam at a crucial moment and its captain Alberto Lora was left sitting on the pitch in tears. Villarreal has 41 points in 16th, one ahead of 17th-placed Rayo Vallecano, who plays at Real Mallorca Wednesday. Gijon is 19th on 34 points, level with Real Zaragoza. Granada moved closer to safety when they won 2-1 at home to Espanyol Tuesday thanks to a first half double from Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo and is 15th on 42 points, while already-relegated Racing Santander drew 1-1 at mid-table Getafe. Meanwhile, Real Madrid visits Athletic Bilbao Wednesday knowing a win would give it its first ‘La Liga' title in four years, breaking the domination of Barcelona forged by the departing Pep Guardiola. With three games remaining Madrid's seven-point lead over the Catalans means one more win is all it requires, and the trophy would go some way to make up for the disappointment of losing last week's Champions League semifinal to Bayern Munich. For Madrid coach Jose Mourinho it would be the fourth country in which he has achieved such a feat, he is currently level on three with Louis van Gaal who includes two titles in Spain with Barca in his personal haul. It would also be an incredible seventh championship in 10 seasons for the Portuguese coach who started with two titles in his native country with Porto before going on to win two at both Chelsea and Inter Milan. To add to the list of achievements Madrid needs to win its three remaining games to reach 100 points and break the record set by Guardiola's Barca in 2009-10 when it got 99 points to beat Madrid by three, then led by Manuel Pelligrini.
