Dzeko to the rescue for Roma

MILAN - Edin Dzeko came off the bench to notch his 20th goal of the campaign as Roma moved back up to second in Serie A on Sunday with a crucial 3-0 win at struggling Palermo.

Dzeko now sits two behind leading scorer Andrea Belotti, who will look to add to his tally of 22 for Torino at Lazio on Monday.

Dzeko's 76th-minute strike put the match beyond reach of the Sicilians and got Roma back to winning ways after a recent rough patch featuring three defeats spread over the Italian Cup, league and Europa League.

"It hasn't been a great week for us," Dzeko told Premium Sport. "So it was important to win tonight and not concede any goals. We'd lost three games, so this will give us back lost confidence."

Palermo is set for relegation and succumbed to early pressure at Barbera Stadium when Stephan El Shaarawy converted a Clement Grenier feed in the 22nd minute past Andrea Fulignati.

Grenier, on loan from Lyon, was booked in his Serie A debut and was replaced in the 64th minute by Dzeko, who 12 minutes later gave the visitor some breathing space.

Bruno Peres slid home in added time to seal the victory.

Roma's 20th win restores its two-point lead over Napoli, which occupies the third and last Champions League qualifying place.

Meanwhile, a 3-0 win at Crotone gave Napoli a six-point advantage over fourth-place Inter Milan.

Days after crashing out the Champions League to Real Madrid, Lorenzo Insigne struck twice, once from the penalty spot, and Dries Mertens added a third as Napoli compounded Crotone's relegation woes to leave it second-from-bottom, two points above Pescara.

But at San Siro, Inter underlined its top-three ambitions with a 7-1 rout of Atalanta that saw Argentines Mauro Icardi and Ever Banega fire hat-tricks.

Atalanta was confident of causing an upset having beaten Inter, Napoli and Roma at home in a season that is turning out to be its best to date.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was humble in defeat, after a dismal display that dropped his side two places, to sixth.

"We got lots wrong today, but in the kind of season we're having we can allow ourselves the odd slip-up," he said.

"We're still targeting the Europa League."

Icardi completed his hat-trick in nine first-half minutes - including one from the spot when he was tripped in the area - to fire the Nerazzurri into a 3-0 lead in the 26th minute.

On Friday, runaway leader Juventus beat AC Milan 2-1 thanks to a 97th-minute Paulo Dybala penalty.

Agence France-Presse