A span of three minutes makes Cittadella lose important match against Perugia.

Within a span of minutes, Cittadella lost control of the match and ultimately falls at home against Perugia; a big loss that has many relegation implications.

Samuel Di Carmine continues to haunt his former team, scoring the opener in the 51st minute and his 7th goal against Cittadella in his career. A few plays later, Perugia doubled their lead from a Tiago Casasola glancing header.

Cittadella were in comfortable position going into halftime. The Granata created most of the chances in the first 45 minutes, coming close early on with Giuseppe Carriero getting in behind the defense, however failing to beat Perugia keeper Stefano Gori, who made 6 saves on the day.

That missed chance came to hurt Cittadella at the start of the second half, when Perugia took the lead through ex-forward Samuel Di Carmine. The striker found an opening inside the box, and tucked away his near post shot past Elhan Kastrati, who saw the ball late.

The game was all but lost for the Granata three minutes later, when Tiago Casasola’s free header at the near post found the back of the net to give the Umbrain club a 0-2 lead.

Unlike last weekend where Cittadella found an answer to Palermo’s gut punch, they were unable to find solutions after going behind in the game. Midfielder Giovanni Crociata arguably had his worst performance in a Cittadella kit since joining in January, having 5 shots throughout the game, but failing to get any of them on frame. Crociata also only had a 29% cross accuracy, which is not good enough by his standards.

The Granata were unable to respond as a team, and therefore the game was lost after Casasola made it 0-2. It’s a huge missed opportunity for Edoardo Gorini’s side to pull away from the relegation zone.

Around the league, Cosenza pulled off a monumental upset over league leaders Frosinone, winning 0-1 in the final minutes of the game. Similarly, Venezia grabbed a late winner at Ascoli, who now inch closer to the Granata.

Cittadella now have time to recharge and regroup for the final eight games of the season, as the international break comes at a great time for the Venetians. After the break, they will travel to Modena for the match on April 2nd.

Top Photo: Paola Garbuio/LaPresse