Atalanta BC eased their relegation worries by claiming a 3-2 win over Palermo in a thrilling Serie A match this afternoon.
The visitors made a bright start and took the lead in the sixth minute when Mauricio Pinilla laid the ball off for Daniele Baselli to place a low effort beyond Samir Ujkani.
It got even better for Atalanta nine minutes later as Sinisa Andelkovic headed the ball into his own net from a corner to give them a two-goal lead.
Alejandro Gomez soon came close to grabbing a third goal for the Nerazzurri, but his free kick came back off the bar.
Palermo gradually fought their way into the match and almost pulled a goal back when Andrea Rispoli saw his effort saved by Vlada Avramov, before Ivaylo Chochev's header from the rebound was cleared off the line by Giuseppe Biava.
Robin Quaison was then brought on for the hosts and, within minutes of his introduction, he raced through on goal and saw his low effort blocked by the legs of Avramov.
With two minutes of the first half left to play, Palermo managed to get on the scoresheet. Atalanta failed to deal with Quaison's cross and Franco Vazquez arrived to head in at the back post.
At the start of the second half, the hosts nearly found themselves back on level terms, but Luca Rigoni's header was blocked on the line.
However, it was Atalanta who grabbed the next goal as Marco D'Alessandro picked out Gomez inside the box to hammer a strike into the roof of the net.
Palermo's hopes of getting back into the game were boosted five minutes later as Avramov made a mess of clearing the ball and ended up bringing down Vazquez inside the box.
The goalkeeper was sent off and Palermo were awarded a penalty, but Andrea Belotti smashed the resulting spot kick against the crossbar.
The hosts did manage to find the back of the net in the 68th minute when Rigoni was picked out by Mato Jajalo's ball over the top, before poking an effort past the keeper.
Palermo piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser, but they were unable to score for a third time as Atalanta held on to move eight points clear of the relegation zone with three games left to play.
Alex Meyers
