Cittadella 0-2 Cesena: Granata sit penultimate entering break

Cittadella enters the November international break in penultimate place in Serie B after the club’s seventh defeat of the season on Sunday against Cesena.

The Granata were fresh from a big three points in Palermo last weekend, with Alessandro Dal Canto’s side hoping to get a home win for the first time in 302 days. Two second half goals from Simone Bastoni and Cristian Shpendi after the hour mark gave Cittadella its second loss at the Stadio Piercesare Tombolato this season.

“I knew that we hadn’t solved all the problems after Palermo, today was a huge step backwards,” Dal Canto said in his postgame interview. “Today we gave the impression of being very fragile.”

Despite entering the weekend in fourth place, Cesena had struggled on the road, obtaining two points in five away games. Michele Mignani’s side earned its first road win of the season at the Tombolato and secured Cesena’s third clean sheet in the past four games.

“Cesena’s first goal completely broke us,” Dal Canto said. “The successive negative results brings discouragement. We give the impression of giving up, giving chances too easily to the opponent.”

Cesena dominated the first half, forcing Cittadella goalkeeper Elhan Kastrati to make four saves. The Albanian keeper ended the game with six saves, one more save that in last weekend’s win against Palermo.

The Cavallucci broke the deadlock at the hour mark after Simone Bastoni’s shot from the edge of the penalty box fired into the net, beating Kastrati near post.

Striker Cristian Shpendi started the game as the league leading goalscorer, netting seven goals for Cesena in 11 games. The 21-year-old forward bagged another goal seven minutes later, slotting a penalty into the corner.

Shpendi thought he scored a brace in the 76th minute after lobbing the ball over Kastrati into an empty net. After a lengthy review, VAR overturned what would’ve been the striker’s ninth goal of the season.

Cittadella ended the game with 10 men as Alessandro Salvi received his marching orders for a second yellow card in the 88th minute.

“We had also suffered in Palermo, but we were more in form in our reactions then,” Dal Canto said. “Today we did nothing. It was bad, very bad.”

Cittadella will get two weeks without a game before returning to the pitch on Nov. 24 at the Stadio San Nicola against Bari.

“We have to turn this around and do more,” Dal Canto said. “I will try to fix the way we are on the pitch, aware that we have to put ourselves more into our games. We have to raise our situations in the balance.”

PHOTO: Massimo Felicetti / A.S. Cittadella