Genoa hammer four past Atalanta BC

Genoa boosted their hopes of qualifying for Europe by coming from behind to thrash Atalanta BC 4-1 in Serie A this afternoon.

Andrea Bertolacci was the first to threaten for the visitors with a low effort from outside the box that was gathered by Marco Sportiello.

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Atalanta were then given the chance to take the lead from the penalty spot, after Nicolas Burdisso handled the ball inside the box.

Mauricio Pinilla took the resulting spot kick and kept his composure to slide a low effort into the corner against his parent club.

It did not take long for Genoa to level the scores as, on the half-hour mark, Leonardo Pavoletti met Bertolacci's cross to direct a header into the corner of the net.

On the stroke of half time, Bertolacci almost sent his team into the lead, but his header from Maxime Lestienne's delivery was cleared off the line by Pinilla.

Bertolacci did manage to find the net 12 minutes into the second half as he collected Edenilson's pass and drove into the box before calmly sliding a low effort into the bottom corner.

It got even better for Genoa four minutes later as Iago Falque curled a low strike beyond the reach of Sportiello to give them a two-goal lead.

The visitors were looking dangerous every time that they came forward, and Falque cut inside from the right before bending an effort into the top corner to further extend his side's advantage in the 73rd minute.

Atalanta pressed for a way back into the game, but they were unable to muster a comeback as Genoa held on to move up to fifth place in the Serie A table.