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54 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 MAY 2015 Sport FOOTBALL Crystal Palace ruin Steven Gerrard's Anfield farewell Inter keeper Handanovic hands win to Juve STEVEN Gerrard was unable to lead Liverpool to victory on an emotional final outing at An- field against Crystal Palace. Gerrard was given a guard of honour when he walked on to the pitch with his three daugh- ters and everything went to plan for the Liverpool captain when he watched his team-mate Adam Lallana give the hosts the lead in the first half. Palace gatecrashed the party though, with Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Mur- ray all finding the net to give the visitors a 3-1 win that ended Liv- erpool's faint hopes of Champi- ons League qualification with one match to go. Hull's chances of staying in the Barclays Premier League re- ceived a hammer blow as they lost 2-0 at Tottenham. The Tigers squandered a number of chances in the first half and were made to pay after the break as Nacer Chadli and Danny Rose found the net to hand Spurs the win that leaves Steve Bruce's men two points adrift of safety. Hull will need fortune on their side if they are to avoid the drop in next weekend's final round of fixtures. Unless they beat Manchester United at home, Hull will join QPR and Burnley in the Sky Bet Championship next year. Newcastle threw away a good chance to put distance between themselves and the bottom three as they lost 2-1 at QPR. Emmanuel Riviere put New- castle ahead with his first league goal for the club, but Matt Phil- lips and Leroy Fer found the net for QPR to leave the Magpies fretting about next weekend's home game against West Ham. Leicester completed their great escape as they drew 0-0 at Sun- derland to secure their Premier League status. The Foxes looked doomed in March, but a run of one defeat in eight matches means they are safe with one game to go. Sunderland are three points above the relegation zone, but one point from their remaining two games will see them safe. The fact that those games are at Arsenal and Chelsea means the Black Cats are still very much in the relegation dogfight, how- ever. Aston Villa are safe despite a 6-1 drubbing at Southampton in the lunch-time kick-off. Sadio Mane scored the quick- est hat-trick in Premier League history, Shane Long grabbed a double, and Graziano Pelle also found the net, while Christian Benteke was on target for the visitors, who are four points above Hull and safe. Liverpool's Merseyside neigh- bours Everton came from behind to beat West Ham 2-1 at Upton Park. Leon Osman cancelled out Stewart Downing's opener be- fore Romelu Lukaku grabbed all three points for the Toffees with a stoppage-time winner. Burnley and Stoke played out a 0-0 draw in Saturday's other match. Liverpool's Steven Gerrard walks off at the end after playing his final game at Anfield Inter Milan are in danger of missing out on a place in Europe next season after goalkeeper Samir Handanovic handed Juventus a 2-1 win in Serie A yesterday ALVARO Morata was as stunned as the keeper when his low shot from just outside the area took a slight def lection off Danilo D'Ambrosio seven minutes from time, leaving Handanovic wrong- footed. The Spanish striker did not cel- ebrate straight away as he had thought Handanovic would parry the shot easily enough. Inter are eighth in the table on 52 points, two adrift of Sampdo- ria and the last Europa League preliminary round spot. Samp host third-placed Lazio in the evening fixture. Juve, who clinched their fourth successive title two weeks ago, have 83 points from 36 games. Inter took the lead after 10 minutes when Argentine strik- er Mauro Icardi re-directed a Marcelo Brozovic attempt with his chest. Juve coach Massimiliano Al- legri had rested seven players who started Wednesday's Cham- pions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid and Inter appeared to be in control. Swiss midfielder Xherdan Shaquiri almost doubled the lead before halftime when his left- footed curler hit the bar. However, an errant Gary Medel back pass allowed Alessandro Matri to beat Nemanja Vidic, the former Manchester United de- fender bringing the Juve attacker down inside the box. Claudio Marchisio beat Handanovic from the spot and Morata's late strike sealed vic- tory for Juve. Alvaro Morata celebrates