Livorno overcame Cagliari 2-1 at the Stadio Sant’Elia on Sunday afternoon to pick up a crucial three points in the race to avoid relegation.
The first half was a dour affair, but the match was sparked into life by a memorable goal from Emerson one minute from the interval, as Paulinho added a second from the penalty spot and Nene got one back for the home side, before Daniele Conti, Marco Benassi and Federico Ceccherini all saw red after the break.
Livorno looked the better side in the first quarter of the game, getting in some dangerous crosses from both sides through Djamel Mesbah, Alfred Duncan and Ibrahima Mbaye, who caused Gabriele Perico and Nicola Murru a lot of headaches on the flanks.
Murru was guilty of conceding possession twice in the opening five minutes, but the Amaranto couldn’t capitalise on his mistakes, despite the high line the Cagliari defence were playing, as an interesting duel with Murru and Mbaye shaped up down the left wing.
Mbaye had a great chance to open the scoring from a corner situation – Duncan delivered a cross following a corner on the right, and put in a ball for the young defender, who drove a powerful header into the arms of Vlada Avramov.
Dario Del Fabro nearly put the ball into his own net after 12 minutes, following a cross from Mbaye on the right, but skewed his mishit-clearance just past the right post much to the relief of the fans behind the goal.
The young defender then lost the ball in a dangerous position in the 20th minute, as Paulinho intercepted his heavy touch, running through with Duncan two on one. However, his pass was too heavy as he attempted to put his teammate through on the left, giving Del Fabro a chance to get back and push him out wide, as Livorno failed to take advantage.
The home side came more into the game as half time approached, but had still not had a shot inside the box, with Nene, Andrea Cossu and Daniele Conti all having long range efforts on target.
Andrea Luci went down injured and collapsed on his standing leg without being touched, yelling in pain – he went off on a stretcher, being replaced by Marco Biagianti after just 33 minutes.
Emerson scored a contender for goal of the season from about 40 yards out to break the deadlock after 44 minutes – he cut inside onto his left foot from the right, and fired an unstoppable drive into the left side of Avramov’s net as the Serbian stayed rooted to the spot.
After the restart, Avramov conceded a foul in the box, after he misjudged the flight of the ball, and brought down Paulinho clumsily, being yellow-carded for the challenge – the Brazilian converted the resulting penalty in the 54th minute, firing it into the left side of Avramov’s net, despite the Serb diving well and getting contact.
Nene then scored a beautiful goal to halve the deficit after 64 minutes, curling a left-footed shot into the left side of Francesco Bardi’s goal after cutting the ball in from the right and tricking the defender.
The Brazilian forward was brought down outside the box, and after having the resulting free-kick charged down by the wall, which was too close, Conti was shown a straight red card by the referee for his protests, as the Sardi went down to 10 men after 71 minutes.
Andrea Coda then hand-balled in the box as he attempted to dispossess Victor Ibarbo, but the referee waved the protests away, as Ceccherini was sent off after receiving his second booking with five minutes to play for a bad foul on Mauricio Pinilla.
Benassi got a harsh red card, also for a bad challenge on Pinilla, which merited a yellow card at most, as the Chilean’s theatrics convinced the referee it was worse than it was.
Despite this, he made a telling contribution after coming on, but couldn’t influence the final result, as the Tuscans went on to record a well-earned victory.
Follow Anthony on Twitter: @anthonyalborino
