Serie A | Roma 3-0 Cremonese: Cristante sparks surge into top 3

Bryan Cristante scored one and assisted another for Evan N’Dicka on corners, as Roma defeated Cremonese 3-0 to catch Napoli in third place.

The Giallorossi were eager to get back on track after twice fumbling a lead for the 2-2 draw at Napoli. Their injury crisis intensified, as Paulo Dybala, Matias Soulé, Artem Dovbyk, Evan Ferguson and Stephan El Shaarawy missed out, but Manu Koné returned. Mario Hermoso pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by Daniele Ghilardi. Cremonese had just four draws and seven defeats since their last win on December 7, scoring one goal in six rounds. Federico Baschirotto, Michele Collocolo, Romano Floriani Mussolini and Faris Moumbagna didn’t make the trip.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Sebastiano Luperto risked an own goal when his defensive header on a Bryan Zaragoza cross skimmed the far post, then on the resulting corner Koné saw his effort charged down by teammate Ghilardi.

Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free kick sailed over the bar, but Roma were unlucky on 35 minutes when Gianluca Mancini nodded a Zaragoza cross onto the bar, with Pellegrini’s acrobatic follow-up also denied by Giuseppe Pezzella.

Gian Piero Gasperini moved his team to a 4-2-3-1 formation after the restart, while Cremonese lost Martin Payero to a knee injury.

Emil Audero used his legs to deny Malen from a tricky angle, another of the Dutchman’s attempts charged down by Luperto.

Roma finally broke through on the hour mark when Pellegrini’s corner found Bryan Cristante for a glancing header that grazed the inside of the near post to give Audero no chance.

They started pouring forward, as Evan N’Dicka turned a header wide, then forced a low save from Audero, while Zeki Celik rolled across the face of goal just beyond Malen for what would’ve been a tap-in.

Malen cut inside and his shot took a deflection off Luperto to flash just over the bar, but Roma doubled their lead from another corner. This time, Cristante flicked on the Neil El Aynaoui corner with his heel, finding N’Dicka relatively undisturbed to sweep in from six yards.

N’Dicka threatened a third, nodding the El Aynaoui free kick over the bar, while Mile Svilar stepped up the only time he was called into action, rushing off his line to deny Jamie Vardy one-on-one after the offside trap failed.

Morten Thorsby was also wasteful, his diving header turning the Filippo Terracciano cross over from 12 yards.

Instead, Roma added their third when two defenders blocked off Malen inside the area, the loose ball rolling into the path of Niccolò Pisilli to sweep into the far bottom corner.

Venturino was close to a fourth, his left-foot curler shaving a coat of paint off the far top corner after cutting inside from the right.

Roma 3-0 Cremonese

Cristante 59 (R), N’Dicka 77 (R), Pisilli 86 (R)