Cremonese finally earned their first win of the Serie A season, having already knocked Roma out of the Coppa Italia, preventing the Giallorossi from going into joint second place.
The Giallorossi were coming off a confident Europa League play-off win against RB Salzburg and knew a win would put them level with Inter and Milan. They gave Gini Wijnaldum his first start for the club after fracturing his tibia in August, but Chris Smalling was suspended and Tammy Abraham still dealing with a cut that left him needing stitches under his eye. Cremonese didn’t have a single Serie A victory, despite knocking Napoli and Roma out of the Coppa Italia to reach the semi-finals. Johan Vasquez returned from his ban, with David Okereke and Cyriel Dessers available again, but Michele Castagnetti had tonsillitis.
In the opening three minutes, Paulo Dybala’s back-heel flick had released Wijnaldum to flash a shot across the face of goal from a tricky angle, while Felix Afena-Gyan blasted just over from distance against his old club.
Cremonese broke the deadlock when Emanuele Valeri used his chest to cushion a ball over the top, Frank Tsadjout let it bounce and smashed on the half-volley into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.
Dybala was pushed over in the box by Bianchetti, but had wandered offside first, so Cremonese went into the break leading a Serie A match for the first time since facing Bari on April 19, 1996.
Jose Mourinho was sent off for dissent just moments into the second half and Marco Carnesecchi was alert to anticipate Lorenzo Pellegrini first, then Andrea Belotti, but Cremonese threatened a second on the counter with three against three.
Roma made a quadruple substitution on the hour mark to shake things up and Stephan El Shaarawy had two shots charged down by Ferrari in quick succession, although Gianluca Mancini was offside in the build-up anyway, then Tammy Abraham hit a fresh-air volley from 12 yards.
The Giallorossi equalised with their first shot on target and a magnificent moment of football. Mancini floated a long ball over the top, Spinazzola timed his run perfectly to spring the offside trap, his first touch was sublime and he kept his cool to sweep it into the bottom corner.
Suddenly, Roma burst to life, as Dybala scuffed his finish straight at the goalkeeper, then Carnesecchi did brilliantly to rush off his line and fingertip the ball off the foot of El Shaarawy when clear on goal.
However, Daniel Ciofani’s deflected shot turned into an assist for David Okereke, who was brought down by on-rushing Rui Patricio for a penalty. The goalkeeper picked the right angle, but Ciofani drilled the spot-kick right into the bottom corner.
Dybala blasted over from distance, as Roma failed to mount another fightback.
This result lifts them off the foot of the table, leapfrogging Sampdoria.
Cremonese 2-1 Roma
Tsadjout 17 (C), Spinazzola 70 (R), Ciofani pen 83 (C)
Player statistic
| Alex Ferrari |  |
12' | ||
| Frank Tsadjout (Assist: Emanuele Valeri) |
 |
17' |
| Matteo Bianchetti | |
52' | ||
| Leonardo Sernicola | |
58' | ||
| 71' | |
Leonardo Spinazzola (Assist: Gianluca Mancini) | ||
| 74' | |
Stephan El Shaarawy | ||
| 82' | |
Roger Ibañez | ||
| Daniel Ciofani |  |
83' |
Match statistic
