Atalanta, the Italian league's ongoing Cinderella story, beat the Bianconeri 1-0 with a late goal from Ruslan Malinovskyi on Sunday to leapfrog the champions and move into third place.

The defeat came on a day of reports that Juventus are part of a group of European heavyweights renewing threats to walk away from the Champions League and create a Super League.

Juventus dropped to fourth - which carries the final Champions League berth - two points behind Atalanta and just two points ahead of fifth-place Napoli, who held leaders Inter Milan to a 1-1 draw.

"We have to focus only on ourselves," Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said.

"I am convinced there will be no problem achieving our objective."

Juventus have won only one of their past four matches and lost twice in that span - with the other defeat coming at home against promoted Benevento last month.

Juventus were missing the injured Cristiano Ronaldo and produced few chances in Bergamo before Malinovskyi's shot in the 87th minute took a major deflection off Alex Sandro and sent goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way.

It marked Atalanta's first victory over Juventus in Serie A in more than two decades - since February 2001.

"This win means we can beat them," Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said.

"The victory is justified and we are proud of it."

Juventus have failed to win all four Serie A matches that Ronaldo has missed this season, including two when he had the coronavirus and another when he was rested.

"It's no coincidence ... He's suited for these games and is our main finisher," Pirlo said.

"When missing the killer instinct in the box, it's slightly different."

Inter's 11-match winning streak ended with a draw at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, where Napoli went ahead courtesy of an own goal from goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Christian Eriksen equalised after the break for Inter with a booming effort from long distance.

Inter's lead over AC Milan is nine points with seven rounds remaining.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic suspended, an own goal from highly-touted Genoa striker Gianluca Scamacca proved the winner for Milan in a 2-1 victory.

Ante Rebic had put Milan ahead early with a long-range half volley before Mattia Destro levelled for Genoa.

Lazio defeated Benevento 5-3 with the aid of two own goals to be sixth and just four points shy of the final Champions League spot.

Ciro Immobile scored twice - the first was his 150th in Serie A - and Joaquin Correa converted a penalty for Lazio, who also got own-goals from Fabio Depaoli and Lorenzo Montipo.

Relegation-threatened Torino came back from a goal down for a 3-1 win over Roma while Bologna beat Spezia 4-1.

Australian Associated Press