UPDATE 1-Soccer-Atalanta overcome stubborn Samp to rack up ninth win in a row

(Adds Bologna v Sassuolo)

MILAN, July 8 (Reuters) - Atalanta continued their remarkable season by beating Sampdoria 2-0 on Wednesday to extend their winning run to nine Serie A games and climb to third in the table, although they left it late against stubborn opponents.

Serie A's leading scorers struggled to break down relegation-threatened Samp until Ruslan Malinovskyi's inswinging corner found Rafael Toloi at the far post and the Brazilian outjumped two defenders to head home in the 75th minute.

Substitute Luis Muriel fired the second 10 minutes later, his ninth goal of the season scored from the bench, although the Colombian did not celebrate against his former club.

Sampdoria's veteran coach Claudio Ranieri had been sent off just before the first goal, the referee losing patience with him after persistent dissent.

Atlanta have 66 points from 31 games, two ahead of Inter Milan who visit Verona on Thursday and only two behind second-placed Lazio. Their next game is away to leaders Juventus (75 points) on Saturday.

Samp are 16th with 32 points, five clear of the drop zone.

Bologna, who won 2-1 at Inter on Sunday, were brought back to earth with a 2-1 home defeat by Sassuolo, who notched their third win in a row to climb to eighth on 43 points.

Domenico Berardi put Sassuolo ahead with a solo goal in the 41st minute and Lukas Haraslin snapped up a rebound in the 57th for the second.

Musa Barrow pulled one back for Bologna, who had coach Sinisa Mihajlovic sent off in the 81st minute. (Reporting by Brian Homewood, editing by Ed Osmond)