Ivorian youngster Franck Kessie hit a second-half leveller and set up a dramatic last-gasp winner as Atalanta ended a three-game winless run in a 2-1 win over Empoli on Tuesday.

Atalanta, who last month were being tipped for a place in next season's Europa League, left it late to overcome their Tuscan visitors.

Empoli fired a warning when Levan Mchedlidze got on the end of a free-kick six minutes after the restart to flick the ball past Marco Sportiello at the goalkeeper's far post.

It gave the visitors hope of claiming their first pair of consecutive league wins since December 2015, but Kessie, a towering striker who is already courting interest from a number of top clubs, was a game-changer.

After celebrating his 20th birthday on Monday, he replaced Jasmin Kurtic at half-time and on 74 minutes picked up a loose ball on the edge of the area to beat Lukasz Skorupski with a vicious low drive inside the keeper's near post.