Atalanta secured a convincing victory over Lecce, boosting their hopes of qualifying for the top six in Serie A.

AS Roma's heavy defeat to Inter Milan at the weekend opened the door for La Dea to raise their ambitions of securing a place in the European Cup, but they got off to a slow start in Salento.

Fortunately for them, Lecce has the least effective attack in the league and only created one early chance to break the deadlock, when Sadik Fofana shot over the crossbar after a pass from Ylber Ramadani.

As Raffaele Palladino's players began to find their rhythm, it was clear that Charles De Ketelaere was their most dangerous player, and the Belgian forward was thwarted by Lecce captain Wladimiro Falcone with an excellent save after he had combined with Nikola Krstovic.

Atalanta scored the opening goal just before the 30th minute, with De Ketelaere providing the assist to Giorgio Scalvini, who easily overcame Oumar Ngom and scored his third goal of the season, two of which were against Lecce.

The away team showed no signs of complacency and were probably disappointed not to be leading by a greater margin at half-time. Krstovic came close to scoring twice against his former team, but both headers went over the crossbar, before a stronger shot was blocked by Falcone.

Lecce's failure to register a single shot on target before half-time prompted coach Eusebio Di Francesco to bring on Omri Gandelman at the interval, but Atalanta maintained their dominance after the restart.

It was only thanks to the linesman's flag for offside that the home team did not concede a two-goal lead when Ederson scored from close range, while Falcone quickly left his goal to block De Ketelaere's dangerous shot.

The Belgian player played a key role in Atalanta's second goal, setting up Krstovic to score in the bottom corner of the net on his former home ground – his seventh goal in nine recent away games.

La Dea could afford to slow down in the final minutes of the match, but still managed to score a third goal thanks to Giacomo Raspadori's powerful shot, just moments after Falcone made another save to block Ederson's shot.

Atalanta are now unbeaten in six matches and are strong candidates for a European Cup spot, while Lecce remain in the relegation zone after failing to win against any of the top-half teams this season.