Monza were in complete control for an hour, but almost fumbled the points with a late Cremonese fightback in this five-goal thriller.
The hosts were rock bottom and still without a single win all season, also missing suspended Leonardo Sernicola, injured Vlad Chiriches, Christian Acella and Ionut Radu. Stefano Sensi returned to the Monza bench, with only Nicolò Rovella and Giulio Donati unavailable.
The home team held up a banner remembering Gianluca Vialli, who was from Cremona and started his career at his hometown club.
Gianluca Caprari’s angled drive was deflected just past the far post, and it was only a warning sign for Monza’s breakthrough.
Samuele Birindelli did really well to keep the ball in play at the by-line and Andrea Petagna laid it off for Patrick Ciurria to tap in from close range.
Emanuele Valeri’s powerful strike flashed across the face of goal, but Monza received a penalty after a VAR review showed Armando Izzo got to the ball before Paolo Ghiglione. Caprari stepped up and sent Marco Carnesecchi the wrong way.
When Cyriel Dessers did get into a dangerous position to fire inches wide, he was offside anyway, and blasted another attempt well over.
Only a desperate Giacomo Quagliata sliding block prevented Monza scoring a third and that seemed to wake Cremonese up, as moments later Michele Di Gregorio was forced into a fantastic save on the Charles Pickel header from Valeri’s cross.
Di Gregorio was again called into action on a Dessers header, but instead Monza scored a third on the counter. Caprari started the move with a back-heel flick and finished it on a return pass from Petagna.
Daniel Ciofani’s powerful effort was beaten away for a corner and he did get the goal eventually with a precise header into the ground from Valeri’s cross.
It wasn’t over, as a long Valeri cross-field ball went over Ciofani and fell for Dessers, who drilled it back across the face of goal into the far bottom corner for 3-2.
Cremonese were like a completely different team as they went for the equaliser, Marlon having to hoof it clear after Ciofani only grazed his head to a corner, testing Di Gregorio.
Monza had seemed in total control for an hour, but were forced to cling on in stoppages.
Cremonese 2-3 Monza
Ciurria 8 (M), Caprari pen 19, 55 (M), Ciofani 67 (C), Dessers 82 (C)