Roma pay the penalty
Atalanta put wasteful Giallorossi on the spot
MILAN: A 90th-minute penalty from Ivorian teenager Frank Kessie dented wasteful AS Roma’s early season hopes in a 2-1 defeat at Atalanta that left the Giallorossi seven points off the Serie A lead.
Roma travelled to Bergamo under pressure after Juventus opened up a sizeable gap at the top of the pile with a 3-0 rout of league newcomers Pescara on Saturday.
But Luciano Spalletti’s men were incredibly profligate in a dominant first half in which Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah missed a number of chances before Diego Perotti put the visitors ahead from the spot on 40 minutes.
Salah spurned a potential game-changer minutes later after he ran on to another great delivery by Radja Nainggolan only to fire straight at Etrit Berisha from pointblank range.
Roma’s reputation for running out of steam after such one-sided opening halves gave ideas to the hosts, who had the fire in their belly after the half-time interval and conjured an equaliser on the hour in bizarre circumstances.
Roma goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was forced into action to thwart a Kessie cross but palmed it on to Mattia Caldara’s face, the ball ricocheting into the net.
Roma were stunned, but Atalanta were revived.
A Kessie drive was blocked and when Alejandro Gomez went on a mazy run he left Kostas Manolas grounded before seeing his cross nodded out of danger by Antonio Rudiger.
Dzeko has been in fine form for Roma with 10 goals in 12 games but the towering Bosnian’s appeal for an unlikely penalty was waved away when he clashed with Roberto Gagliardini.
It was another sign of Roma’s desperation, and Atalanta continued to press.
Remo Freuler’s deflected strike on 76 minutes came off the near post and into the welcome arms of Szczesny.
Gagliardini had a drive that would have given Szczesny problems had Federico Fazio not got in the way, but as the match drew to a close the hosts were not to be denied.
Leandro Paredes tripped the lively Gomez in the area and Kessie, 19, stepped up to send Szczesny the wrong way to secure Atalanta’s sixth win in their past seven outings.
It moved Gian Piero Gasperini’s men up to fifth, one point ahead of Napoli and only eight behind Juventus.
Elsewhere, Felipe Anderson’s 11th-minute strike set Lazio up for a 3-1 home win over Genoa, who saw Lucas Ocampos level on 52 minutes before Lucas Biglia, from the spot, and Wallace added two more for the hosts.
Bologna moved up to mid-table position with a 3-1 win over Palermo, while Italy striker Andrea Belotti’s purple patch continued with a brace in a 2-0 away win at basement side Crotone that kept Torino seventh.
Fiorentina are just two points behind Torino in eighth after a 4-0 romp at Empoli, where Federico Bernardeschi and Josip Ilicic, with one from the spot, hit a double apiece.
Earlier, Fabio Quagliarella scored his 100th Serie A goal and set up Luis Muriel for an unlikely, late double as Sampdoria completed a dramatic 3-2 come-from-behind win at home to Sassuolo. — AFP