Serie A | Lecce 1-0 Cagliari: Krstovic revives 10-man Salentini for victory

Lecce held on down to 10 men for the entire second half to get their first points of the season with Nikola Krstovic’s goal, as Wladimiro Falcone denied Cagliari.

The Salentini were rock bottom after two heavy defeats, albeit against Atalanta and Inter, and threw deadline day signing Frederic Guilbert straight into the starting line-up. The Sardinians were held to back-to-back draws by Roma and Como, but Nadir Zortea nursing a shoulder injury and new signing Gianluca Gaetano were on the bench.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Lecce incredibly failed to score after seven minutes when Yerry Mina’s howler sent Nikola Krstovic clear on goal, but after hesitating one-on-one with the goalkeeper, he got the shot away only for it to be cleared off the line by Sebastiano Luperto.

Moments later, Krstovic also volleyed well wide from a Lameck Banda assist, but Cagliari also threatened when Zito Luvumbo caught Federico Baschirotto napping and smashed a shot against the crossbar from a tricky angle.

Kialonda Gaspar made a decisive block to charge down the acrobatic Roberto Piccoli volley on a Gabriele Zappa cross.

Lecce took the lead when Krstovic made up for the earlier errors by anticipating his marker at full stretch to tap in the Gaspar header down on a corner kick routine.

Luvumbo almost equalised moments later, his effort deflected inches wide off Baschirotto, while Patrick Dorgu nodded wide after Simone Scuffet flapped at a Guilbert cross and the goalkeeper parried a Remi Oudin free kick.

The game changed on the stroke of half-time, as Dorgu got the lunge all wrong, going over the ball to stamp on Matteo Prati’s ankle.

The visitors tried to take advantage, Paulo Azzi clumsy on the Razvan Marin cross to the back post.

Gianluca Lapadula came on for the restart and within 120 seconds risked getting sent off for a mistimed lunge on Ylber Ramadani, but it was only a yellow card.

Wladimiro Falcone needed an extraordinary reaction save to push the Azzi free header onto the upright from point-blank range.

Krstovic had the ball in the top corner from the edge of the box, but only after the whistle had blown for handball, then moments later Banda ran forward to whip a curler inches wide.

Lecce goalkeeper Falcone was decisive again at the 85^th minute, getting a single glove to the Luvumbo strike at the near post, but he thanked the crossbar when Nicolas Viola pounced on a loose ball from nine yards.