Roma hand Atalanta first defeat

Roma moved up to third in the Serie A table after recording their second straight victory with a 3-1 success over Atalanta. Bojan Krkic and Pablo Osvaldo gave Luis Enrique's team a 2-0 half-time lead and although German Denis pulled a goal back early in the second period, Simplicio sealed the three points late on. Having taken over the club in the summer, Enrique needed six games to finally register a win, but at the Stadio Olimpico the team looked like they were finally starting to gel. Atalanta came out flying and Maximiliano Moralez had an early chance on the break, but shot straight into goalkeeper Bogdan Lobont's arms. Thereafter Roma assumed complete control for the rest of the half. Osvaldo had two glorious chances, but the first was snuffed out by Andrea Masiello while he failed to hit the target with the second. The hosts went ahead on 20 minutes when Danielle De Rossi clipped the ball over the top and Bojan controlled it on the run before firing across goalkeeper Andrea Consigli. The second came on 31 minutes as Aleandro Rosi headed the ball back into the danger zone, Osvaldo got past an advancing defensive line and Consigli to tap into an empty net. Roma were rampant and Consigli had to be alert to save a rising effort from Miralem Pjanic. However, all that good work came to an abrupt end three minutes into the second period as Denis headed home a cross from the right. Atalanta started to push for the equaliser, but Roma remained dangerous and captain Francesco Totti shot inches past the post with a daisy-cutter. Roma had to wait until nine minutes from time to rest easy as Simplicio played a one-two with Pjanic and then dinked the ball over Consigli for the decisive third.