Diawara strikes late to grab win for Roma against Fiorentina

March 4 (Reuters) - Amadou Diawara struck late to earn AS Roma a 2-1 win at Fiorentina on Wednesday that keeps them in the hunt for a top-four finish in Serie A, after wing back Leonardo Spinazzola scored at both ends.

Guinean midfielder Diawara turned in Rick Karsdorp’s cross in the 88th minute but was flagged for offside, only for a VAR review to overturn the decision and award the goal.

Spinazzola had scored a superb opener on the volley earlier in the second half to put the visitors in front, only to smash an attempted clearance into his own net after 60 minutes.

The result leaves Roma in fifth place with 47 points, while Fiorentina, who have lost four of their last five games, are 14th with 25 points.

Atalanta remained fourth and gave newly-appointed Crotone coach Serse Cosmi a debut to forget as they beat the bottom side 5-1 in Bergamo.

Robin Gosens headed in the opener, but Simy equalised with a neat chipped finish to leave the game level at the break.

Yet Atalanta ran away with it in the second half as Jose Luis Palomino, Luis Muriel, Josip Ilicic and Aleksei Miranchuk scored to give Gian Piero Gasperini’s side a fourth consecutive league win and send them level with third-placed Juventus on 49 points.

Cagliari climbed out of the relegation zone as Daniele Rugani’s first-half header clinched a 1-0 win at home to Bologna and sealed back-to-back victories for the first time since October.

Coach Leonardo Semplici oversaw a win over Crotone on his debut last week after replacing the sacked Eusebio Di Francesco, and his side picked up another positive result to move one point above Torino into 17th place, although the Turin club have two games in hand.

Genoa and Sampdoria shared the spoils in the ‘Derby della Lanterna’ as Davide Zappacosta scored a superb opener for the hosts, only for a Lorenzo Tonelli header to earn Samp a draw in a battle between two midtable sides.

Goals from Davide Faraoni and Kevin Lasagna either side of Daam Foulon’s own goal earned eighth-placed Hellas Verona a 3-0 win at Benevento, stretching the Calabrian club’s winless league run to nine games and leaving them five points above the relegation zone in 16th.