Spalletti: We lost balance and it cost us

Substitute Francesco Totti scored a late equaliser to secure a point for the Giallorossi, after Lucas Digne and Radja Nainggolan had put the visitors in a commanding first-half position.

But Atalanta midfielder Marco D’Alessandro drove home from close range to drag his side back into the contest, before a brace from Marco Borriello set the stage for Totti’s final intervention.

The result means Roma remain third, five points behind Napoli in the Serie A table - and four ahead of Inter Milan as the race for Champions League qualification hots up.

Afterwards Spalletti bemoaned his side’s inability to see out the contest after taking the lead.

“We missed a chance today,” Spalletti said. “It can happen. The opposition deserved it but it was clear that we took our foot off the pedal. We didn’t show the kind of focus we need to in order to get the result.

“We lost a bit of balance. We kept losing the ball and let them get back into it after we’d gone 2-0 up. When it went to 3-2 we could have ended up losing 5-2, but things went our way.

“We’re not able to stay focused and on our toes. We don’t gain the vital yards or occupy the key positions on the pitch. Our opponents know that they have to take the few chances they get.”

However, the coach had praise for Totti – who made another decisive impact following his cameo appearance against Bologna on Monday.

"When you play against a side that closes down the space, it’s right that he comes on to pick out the passes," Spalletti noted. "They teed him up for a nice shot on the edge of the box today – he took his shot and scored a great goal.

"He levelled the match for us and that was important. Our problem is that we always have to speak about other things on top of the match and our results. We need to be focused solely on the match.”

The coach concluded: “We starting the match in the right vein in terms of the quality of our play and the way we dominated the pitch.

"We’d knocked Atalanta for six and all we needed to do was maintain our level, but we weren't clinical enough when we had chances.”