A 90th-minute penalty from Ivorian teenager Frank Kessie dented wasteful Roma's early season hopes in a 2-1 defeat at Atalanta that left the Giallorossi seven points off the Serie A lead Sunday. Roma traveled to Bergamo under pressure after Juventus opened up a sizeable gap at the top of the pile with a 3-0 rout of league newcomer Pescara 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. 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 equalizer 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 was stunned, but Atalanta was 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. 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 its past seven outings. It moved Gian Piero Gasperini's men up to fifth, one point ahead of Napoli and only eight behind Juventus. Roma's first defeat in seven games gives AC Milan the chance to move up to second place if it beats city rival Inter in the derby later Sunday. Elsewhere, Felipe Anderson's 11th-minute strike set Lazio up for a 3-1 home win over Genoa. 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 is just two points behind Torino in eighth after a 4-0 romp at Empoli. 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.
