Gianluca Busio equalised in stoppages to help Venezia share the spoils with Cagliari, cancelling out Keita Balde’s opener in the scrappy 1-1 draw at the Sardegna Arena.
The two teams started the night inside the relegation zone, as Venezia sat two points above the hosts ahead of the match in Cagliari.
But the Rossoblu showed their intentions early and pushed to give Walter Mazzarri his first win since taking over after Leonardo Semplici.
Joao Pedro and Keita started up front for the hosts, while Ethan Ampadu started his first game for Venezia in midfield.
Nahitan Nandez was lively at right in the first minutes, while Venezia sat low and gave the hosts space and time on the ball.
After 19 minutes, the Casteddu went ahead through a header from former Sampdoria striker Keita, who was at the end of a great counter attack.
Razvan Marin and Nandez created the transition, before Martin Caceres found Keita with a cross from the right.
Venezia tried to respond after going down in Sardinia and Dennis Johnsen came close after 26 minutes.
Alessio Cragno was called into action but the guests struggled to compete with Cagliari in the first half.
Marin continued to star for the home side and hit the post from outside the area, when goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa and the Arancioneroverde were lucky to still be in the game.
Thomas Henry entered after the break and seemed to give Cagliari some more trouble, but the striker didn’t manage to test Cragno with his two efforts within the first seven minutes.
Cagliari came close to doubling the lead through Keita a few moments later, when the striker arrived fractions late and didn’t reach a marvellous cross from Nandez.
Venezia had made three changes before Mazzarri had considered any substitutions, and the first came when Keita was replaced by Leonardo Pavoletti in the 66th minute.
Norwegian Johnsen came close on another occasion to give Venezia a point, when Alessandro Deiola made a big mistake at the back.
The midfielder was later replaced by Gabriele Zappa for Cagliari to close out the game and keep the three points in Sardinia.
Venezia were hoping to find a way through towards the end and kept pushing. Finally, the goal arrived for the away side to quash the celebrations in Cagliari.
Gianluca Busio found a way past Cragno when his finish deflected and bounced off the bar and into the net after 92 minutes. The two teams get one point each after a scrappy relegation battle.