MANCHESTER, England – Manchester City qualified for the Champions League for the first time on Tuesday, beating Tottenham 1-0 to deny the London club a second successive season in Europe's elite team competition.
The victory came on an own-goal by Peter Crouch, who had scored the lone goal last May that took Tottenham into this season's Champions League at the expense of Man City.
Securing one of England's four Champions League places was an important goal for City's Abu Dhabi owners when they bought the club in 2008.
City plays Stoke in the FA Cup final on Saturday and is on the verge of ending its 35-year title drought.
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MILAN (AP) — Palermo ended AC Milan's hopes of completing a league and cup double with a 2-1 win at home. The result sends Palermo to the final with a 4-3 total-goals victory after both teams finished with 10 men.
Giulio Migliaccio opened the scoring midway through the second half. Milan's Mark Van Bommel was then sent off for fouling Josip Ilicic, and Cesare Bovo doubled the lead with the penalty kick. Soon after, the defender received a red card for hacking down Milan striker Alexandre Pato.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in injury time, but it was too late to spark a comeback for the newly crowned Italian champion.
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MADRID (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo had his seventh hat trick of the season, moving five ahead of Lionel Messi in the Spanish scoring race in Real Madrid's 4-0 win over Getafe.
Ronaldo scored in the 24th and 58th minutes, then converted a penalty kick in injury time to give him 36 league goals and a career-best 49 overall. With two games left, Ronaldo is two goals behind the Spanish league scoring record shared by Hugo Sanchez and Telmo Zarra.
Karim Benzema also scored for Real Madrid, which is five points behind first-place Barcelona.
Barcelona would clinch its third straight league title with a draw or victory Wednesday at Levante.
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Deportivo La Coruna rallied to defeat Athletic Bilbao 2-1, moving three points clear of the relegation zone in the Spanish league.
Gaizka Toquero put Bilbao ahead in the third minute. Deportivo tied it in the 22nd minute when Adrian Lopez's shot deflected off Bilbao's Carlos Gurpegi and landed in the net. The hosts took the lead on Xavier Castillo's own-goal when he tried to clear Adrian's cross in the 71st minute.
Deportivo's first win in four weeks sent Zaragoza into the relegation zone.
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PARIS (AP) — Lille took a step closer to winning the French title, rallying to win 2-1 at Saint-Etienne on a deflected goal by Rio Mavuba.
Lille has a seven-point lead over second-place Marseille, which has played one fewer game and hosts Brest on Wednesday. After that, three rounds remain.
Saint-Etienne took a fifth-minute lead on a goal by Emmanuel Riviere, but Tulio De Melo responded for Lille 10 minutes later. After Riviere almost put Saint-Etienne ahead again, Mavuba's 25-yard shot was deflected and beat goalkeeper Jeremie Janot in the 69th minute.
Paris Saint-Germain's chances of qualifying for the Champions League were hurt after a 2-2 home draw to Nancy. The draw means PSG is one point behind third-place Lyon, which has a game in hand.
Lille won the last of its two French titles in the 1953-54 season. It is vying for a league and French Cup double and plays PSG in Saturday's Cup final.
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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Rangers beat Dundee United 2-0, leaving the team on the brink of completing a hat trick of Scottish Premier League titles.
Goals from Nikica Jelavic and Kyle Lafferty put Rangers four points ahead of Celtic. The Scottish power will win the title Wednesday if its Glasgow rival loses to Hearts.
But if Celtic wins, the Rangers can take the trophy Sunday by beating Kilmarnock in the last match of the season.
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