Serie A | Venezia 2-1 Cagliari: Lagunari win crucial dogfight

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Venezia fought hard to secure a much-needed victory over Cagliari in this relegation dogfight with two unorthodox goals and some Filip Stankovic heroics.

This was a huge clash between two of the bottom three. The Lagunari were coming off back-to-back 2-2 thrillers against Como and Juventus, but Michael Svoboda was ruled out for the season by a torn ACL, joining Alfred Duncan, Richie Sagrado and Antonio Raimondo on the absentee list. The Sardinians missed Zito Luvumbo to an ankle sprain after narrow 1-0 defeats to Fiorentina and Atalanta.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Joel Pohjanpalo failed to make the most of a misplaced Nadir Zortea pass, as Cagliari dominated the early stages and controlled the initiative at the Stadio Penzo.

Mikael Ellertsson made a decisive interception to stop Zortea nodding in a Tommaso Augello cross at the far post, but Filip Stankovic had a huge stroke of luck when the Yerry Mina header from Augello’s free kick hit him in the face for the most unorthodox of saves.

It was Venezia who took the lead very much against the run of play. Gaetano Oristanio got away from a crowd of defenders to sprint down the left and pull back, where Augello failed the interception, allowing Francesco Zampano to tap in from seven yards.

Zortea tested Stankovic with a slight deflection, but Venezia came out fighting for the restart with Alen Sherri twice flapping a dangerous ball off the feet of Pohjanpalo and Gianluca Busio, then Jay Idzes failed to take advantage of a chaotic Mina clearance.

Sherri at full stretch fingertipped a Hans Nicolussi Caviglia curler out of the top corner and got away with a shaky save on the Anderson snapshot, while Oristanio also drilled wide from distance.

Venezia thought they had made it 2-0 on the hour mark with a delightful Oristanio lob, but Pohjanpalo was offside on the assist from midfield and the SAOT (Semi-Automatic Offside Technology) showed it was just his trailing stud that was to blame.

The Lagunari did manage to get their second moments later, because Marin Sverko started the run from the final third, stumbled and fell, but still managed to toe-poke it towards goal much to the surprise of the Cagliari defenders and goalkeeper.

Cagliari threw on Leonardo Pavoletti and he quickly got them back into the game, his towering header on Augello’s cross from the left bending back Stankovic’s glove.

It turned into a siege from the Sardinians, as Stankovic fingertipped the Gabriele Zappa curler out of the top corner, then performed a heroic double save on Gianluca Lapadula from point-blank range.

Stankovic rushed off his line to deny Mattia Felici at the back post in stoppages as Venezia clamber out of last place.