Serie A | Cremonese 1-3 Roma: Ferguson breaks duck to stay on top

Roma comfortably conquered Cremonese 3-1 with Matias Soulé, Wesley, and the first goal in the Giallorossi jersey for Evan Ferguson to stay top of the table.

The Giallorossi went into the break for international duty as joint Serie A leaders with Inter, but were missing Paulo Dybala, Artem Dovbyk, Leon Bailey, Angelino and Mario Hermoso, with Evan Ferguson not at 100 per cent either, so Soulé was used as a False 9 with Tommaso Baldanzi and Jan Ziolkowski stepping in. Cremonese were giant-killers, but coming off back-to-back defeats with Alessio Zerbin, Mikayil Faye, Faris Moumbagna and Michele Collocolo injured.

As part of the campaign on violence against women, along with red marks on their faces, Cremonese players also wore shirts with the names of important women in their lives, including mothers, wives and daughters.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Mile Svilar was forced into a tough early save on Federico Bonazzoli from point-blank range after the give and go with Jamie Vardy, but it was Roma who broke the deadlock moments later.

Soulé bent a left-foot finish around Emil Audero into the near bottom corner from the edge of the area on the Manu Kone lay-off.

The visitors thought they had doubled their lead on 26 minutes when Tommaso Baldanzi sting Audero’s gloves from the edge of the box and Lorenzo Pellegrini was ready to turn in the rebound from six yards. However, the midfielder was in an offside position.

Cremonese almost equalised when Svilar pushed a Jari Vandeputte scorcher onto the far post, also scrambling to parry the follow-up.

Audero performed an extraordinary fingertip save to push the Pellegrini finish over from a Zeki Celik pull-back. There was more controversy when Cremonese were awarded a penalty in first half stoppages, which was overturned following the VAR review as Gianluca Mancini’s hand was in a natural position when struck from close range.

Ziolkowski was taken off after a difficult first half, so Bryan Cristante dropped into the back three.

Martin Payero went off with a shoulder injury for Cremonese, while Soulé fired wide on the counter from a Wesley assist.

Gian Piero Gasperini was booked for dissent, continued to protest and immediately received a second yellow card.

The coach therefore didn’t get to see substitute Ferguson score his first goal in the Roma jersey. Audero flapped at a Wesley cross and Stephan El Shaarawy slipped, so Neil El Aynaoui laid it off for the Irish striker to take a touch and sweep in with his right foot from 12 yards.

They added a third soon after, as Wesley ran onto an inspired El Shaarawy slide-rule pass from midfield and dinked a delicate finish over the on-rushing Audero.

Ferguson thought he had scored a fourth in the final minute, but was offside when his finish went in off the underside of the bar.

Instead, Cremonese got a consolation in stoppages when Francesco Folino was allowed to nod a corner in at the back post, his first Serie A career goal.

Soulé 17 (R), Ferguson 64 (R), Wesley 69 (R), Folino 93 (C)