ROME — Claudio Ranieri’s Roma fell to a shock 2-1 defeat at struggling SPAL Saturday, missing a golden opportunity to close the gap on Champions League rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan.

Milan is third, one point ahead of Inter, with Roma in fifth three points back in the battle for elite European football next season, ahead of Sunday’s Milan derby.

Ranieri had won his first match after taking over from sacked Eusebio Di Francesco — 2-1 against Empoli — but his side fell to its relegation-threatened host, leaving Roma’s season in the balance after its Champions League elimination at the hands of Porto and 3-0 beating by city rival Lazio.

“I expected more. Our opponents were a team and we weren’t,” said Ranieri of Roma, which also lost the reverse fixture 2-0 in October.

“We lost to a team who earn less than us, who are more humble than us, more determined than us, who are up to their necks in it, and they showed all that today.”

Algerian international Mohamed Fares nodded SPAL ahead after 22 minutes, and Ranieri introduced 19-year-old rising star Nicolo Zaniolo after the break to immediate effect.

Edin Dzeko ran on to a 53rd-minute Zaniolo through-ball and was fouled by Thiago Cionek in the area, before Diego Perotti converted the penalty.

But seven minutes later Andrea Petagna scored the winner for SPAL from the spot following a foul by Roma defender Juan Jesus.

SPAL held on for just its sixth win of the season and first home victory since September, which moved it up to 15th place, five points above the drop zone.

Torino missed the chance to pull level on points with Ranieri’s stuttering outfit when it fell to its first defeat in two months, 3-2 to lowly Bologna.

Sampdoria beat Sassuolo 5-3, with Serie A top scorer Fabio Quagliarella, 36, scoring his 21st goal of the season days after being recalled to the Italy team.

Atletico loses to Bilbao

Atletico Madrid’s faint La Liga title hopes suffered a setback with a 2-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao Saturday which could leave it 10 points behind leader Barcelona by the end of the weekend.

Bilbao forward Inaki Williams put the home side in front in the 73rd minute, guiding the ball into an empty net after Atletico’s Jose Gimenez had given the ball away in his own half.

Kenan Kodro sealed the win for Athletic five minutes from time with a shot which took a huge deflection off Gimenez, piling more pain on Atletico four days after it was knocked out of the Champions League by Juventus.

Atletico is second in the standings on 56 points while Barca has 63.

Dortmund bounces back

Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus scored a stoppage-time winner to complete a 3-2 comeback victory at Hertha Berlin Saturday and reclaim top spot in the Bundesliga, three points ahead of champion Bayern Munich.

Dortmund scored through Thomas Delaney in the 14th minute and Dan-Axel Zagadou two minutes after the restart to cancel out Salomon Kalou’s first-half double.

Yet despite laying siege to the Hertha box for much of the second half and with the hosts down to 10 men in the 85th minute following the dismissal of Jordan Torunarigha, it had to wait until deep into stoppage time for Reus to find space in the box and fire home his 15th goal of the campaign.

The win was crucial for coach Lucien Favre’s team, which is chasing one trophy this season after it was eliminated last week from the Champions League by Tottenham Hotspur following its German Cup exit last month.

RB Leipzig tightened its hold on third place with a 1-0 victory over embattled Schalke 04 with Germany international Timo Werner scoring a 14th-minute winner. The win lifted Leipzig to 49 points. — Agencies