Empoli edged past Cremonese 1-0 in the opening round of Serie B at the Carlo Castellani on Friday evening. The hosts took the lead in the twenty-first minute through Stiven Shpendi, whose effort was confirmed after a VAR review. To be fair, the result felt inevitable once the visitors lost their momentum.
The decisive moment came so early that Cremonese spent most of the match chasing. Shpendi's strike was met with a brief pause while officials consulted, then the scoreboard read 1-0. And here's the thing about such goals — they shift everything about how a team plays for the next hour.
Cremonese were forced to respond, but the match turned at the fifty-ninth minute when Joseph Ceesay saw red. Empoli then substituted their goalscorer at the hour mark, bringing fresh legs into the final third. By then, the visitors had already made three changes, including Manuel De Luca at sixty-five minutes.
The statistics told a familiar story of possession without penetration. Cremonese held seventy-five per cent of the ball and pushed four hundred forty-seven passes into the opposition half, yet managed only two shots on target. Empoli, with just twenty-five per cent, registered five attempts on goal and created one clear-cut chance.
The victory lifted Empoli to eleventh place with three points from two matches, while Cremonese remained bottom of the table with zero points after two defeats. The visitors had won away at Sampdoria on their previous outing, but this time they could not find the net. What matters now is whether they can build on that opening day effort.