The thirtieth day of Serie A opens with a victory by 1-0 of Cremonese against Empoli. At Zini, the paw decides in the 4th minute Dessers who, left alone in the area, controls and beats Software. Sernicola nearly doubled in the second half, but the result does not change: second success in a row for the Grigiorossi di Ballardini, which rise to 19 points, -7 from safety. Instead, the Tuscans of Zanettiwhich remain at 32.
THE MATCH
It may not be too late for salvation: in full Ballardini style, the
Cremona doesn’t give up and tries the feat, less impossible thanks to the second consecutive victory of the Grigiorossi and the 1-0 over the
Empoli with which the thirtieth day of Serie A opens. And the goal that decides the match arrives immediately: in the 4th minute, in fact, Dessers immediately receives the launch of
Sernicola, he checks and with a paw from a few steps he overcomes
Software, still in goal instead of Vicar. The match unlocks immediately, but still struggles to take off. The response of the Tuscans comes only in the 26th minute with Piccoli, who shoots high, then before the interval Zanetti loses
The winter, replaced by
Walukiewicz.
A few minutes into the second half, Aiwu took over Lochoshvili in the hosts’ back pack, who came close to doubling on the hour. Zanetti, meanwhile, is playing it all by inserting
change them in place of Piccoli first and Destro in place of Fazzini then, but Empoli didn’t concretely go close to a draw, not even in the long recovery granted by Zufferli. Cremonese thus rises to 19 points and, waiting for Spezia-Lazio, is -7 from salvation, no longer as distant as at the beginning of the season. Furthermore, for the first time since March 1996, they won two games in a row in Serie A. Empoli, on the other hand, lost after two useful results and remained at 32, momentarily +10 on third from bottom place.
REPORT CARDS
Sernicola 6,5 – His pitch for Dessers, but he’s one of the best for the whole game. He also nearly doubled in the second half.
Chestnuts 6.5 – Together with Meité, he forms a dam in midfield, also made up of quality and not just muscles.
Dessers 7 – It only takes 4 minutes to unlock and decide a very precious match for the Grigiorossi.
Winter 5 – A day to forget: Dessers lost on goal and went off due to injury in the 40th minute.
Parisi 6 – One of the most positive of the Tuscans, pushes on the wing and tries until the end.
THE TABLE
CREMONESE-EMPOLI 1-0
Cremona (4-3-1-2): Carnesecchi 6; Sernicola 6.5, Lochoshvili 6 (7′ st Aiwu 6), Vasquez 6.5, Valeri 6; Pickel 6, Castagnetti 6.5, Meité 6.5; Galdames 6 (22′ St Benassi 6); Tsadjout 5.5 (40′ st Quagliata sv), Dessers 7 (22′ st Okereke 6). Unavailable: Saro, Sarr, Ferrari, Ghiglione, Acella, Basso Ricci, Buonaiuto, Afena-Gyan. Herds: Ballardini 7
Empoli (4-3-1-2): Perisan 6; Ebuehi 5.5 (17′ st Stojanovic 6), De Winter 5 (40′ Walukiewicz 6), Luperto 6, Parisi 6; Fazzini 5.5 (34′ st Destro 6), Marin 5.5, Bandinelli 6 (34′ st Henderson 6); Baldanzi 5.5; Caputo 5.5, Piccoli 5.5 (17′ st Cambiaghi 6). Available: Ujkani, Stubljar, Cacace, Grassi, Degli Innocenti, Haas, Satriano, Pjaca, Vignato. Herds: Zanetti 5
Referee: Zufferli
Marker: 4′ Dessers
Ammonites: Sernicola (C)
Note: recovery 2’+7′
THE STATISTICS
• Cremonese have won two games in a row for the first time in this championship: they hadn’t succeeded in Serie A since March 1996 (vs Lazio and Padova) with Luigi Simoni on the bench.
• Cremonese have won a Serie A match without conceding a goal for the first time since 21 May 1995 (3-0 vs Padova).
• Cyriel Dessers’ goal (three minutes, 22 seconds) is the second fastest scored by Cremonese in this Serie A after the one also scored by the Nigerian forward against Spezia on 16 October 2022 (one minute and one second).
• Cremonese have scored in four consecutive Serie A games for the first time this season – the Lombards have not managed so many in the competition since April 1996 (run of six in the event).
• With Leonardo Sernicola’s assist, Cremonese became the third team in this Serie A to have two defenders with at least two goals and two winning passes (Valeri and Sernicola), after Napoli (Di Lorenzo and Kim) and Verona (Doig and Depaoli).
• Cyriel Dessers has scored nine league goals this season (six with Cremonese, three with Genk) – only in the 2019/20 season had he scored more in the top 10 European leagues (15 with Heracles Almelo).
• Empoli have not won any of the 13 Serie A matches in which they conceded the first goal of the match: two draws and 11 defeats for the Tuscans.
• Empoli have failed to find a goal in 10 Serie A games this season, already one more than their total goalless games in the whole of last season (nine).
• After 15 matches without success (D7 L8) Cremonese beat a Tuscan team for the first time in Serie A.
• Against Cremonese, Empoli recorded a 68% ball possession percentage, the highest against a single opponent in Serie A this season.
• Cyriel Dessers was involved in two goals in back-to-back matches in Serie A (one goal and one assist) for the second time in this league after two goals against Napoli and Spezia last October.
• Cremonese have not conceded a goal at home in Serie A after a run of seven home matches with at least one goal conceded.
• Mattia Destro is back on the pitch in Serie A for the first time in over five months: his last league appearance was on 5 November 2022 (vs Sassuolo).
