Football Italia
·25 May 2024
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·25 May 2024
Cremonese demolished Catanzaro 4-1 on the night to set up their Serie B promotion play-off final against Venezia.
Those Serie B two-legged ties will be played on May 30 and June 2.
The first leg of this semi-final had been a 2-2 thriller on May 21, so it was in theory wide open, but Cremonese made short work of their opponents once back on home turf.
Michele Castagnetti saw his strike flapped onto the upright in the third minute, which was only a warning before Franco ‘El Mudo’ Vasquez opened the scoring with a left-foot scorcher into the far top corner from the edge of the box.
It was followed soon after by Cristian Buonaiuto with an unorthodox acrobatic volley on the Castagnetti pass, then Massimo Coda with a simple tap-in set up by Vazquez.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Catanzaro saw Enrico Brignola sent off for dissent.
Leonardo Sernicola added the fourth on a Michele Collocolo pull-back from the by-line and Catanzaro had one tiny consolation goal with Matias Antonini.
Catanzaro thought they had another late on, but Alfredo Donnarumma’s goal was disallowed.
Vazquez 12 (Cr), Buonaiuto 19 (Cr), Coda 38 (Cr), Sernicola 70 (Cr), Antonini 80 (Ca)
Sent off: Brignola 63 (Ca)