Cremonese might be in the Coppa Italia semi-finals, but they are still rock bottom in Serie A after Federico Baschirotto and Gabriel Strefezza gave Lecce three precious away points.
Davide Ballardini really turned their season around, eliminating Napoli and then Roma from the Coppa Italia to reach the semi-finals, but Cremonese were still without a single Serie A win. Charles Pickel returned from suspension, with Giacomo Quagliata, Alessandro Buonaiuto and Luka Lochosvili injured. Lecce suffered back-to-back defeats and were without a win in four, losing Assan Ceesay, Youssef Maleh, Marin Pongracic and Kastriot Dermaku.
The visitors started strong, Lorenzo Colombo drilling just wide and then nobody ready to meet Gabriel Strefezza’s ball across the face of goal, while Johan Vasquez and Emanuele Valeri didn’t make the most of their headers.
Alexis Blin went off injured and Morten Hjulmand was fortunate to not even get booked for a very high tackle on Marco Benassi.
Alex Ferrari made a crucial block to prevent Strefezza nodding in, leading to a heavy collision, while Federico Di Francesco tested Marco Carnesecchi on the stroke of half-time.
Cyriel Dessers went sliding in at the back post, inches away from meeting the deflected Vasquez cross-shot, and Colombo wasted a free header on Antonino Gallo’s cross that skimmed the top corner.
It was Lecce who finally broke the deadlock on a short corner, when Hjulmand whipped in a cross for the head of Federico Baschirotto, left criminally unmarked from six yards.
Leonardo Sernicola tried to fight back with a screamer from outside the box that shaved a coat of paint off the top corner with a deflection, but Lecce instead doubled their lead with a sensational Strefezza left-foot curler into the top corner from outside the D after Joan Gonzalez had robbed Soualiho Meite in midfield.
Carnesecchi kept the scoreline down with a fine save on William Banda’s counter-attack and angled drive, but the first real Cremonese shot on target was at the 94th minute, Felix Afena-Gyan’s strike beaten away by Falcone.
Cremonese 0-2 Lecce
Baschirotto 58 (L), Strefezza 69 (L)