10.05.2015 17:37 h

Cesena relegated after one season in Serie A

Cesena were relegated from the Italian top flight on Sunday after throwing away a two-goal half-time lead to lose 3-2 at home to Sassuolo.

Cesena needed to beat Sassuolo and hope Atalanta failed to win at Palermo in order to survive for another week, but goals from Simone Zaza, Saphir Taider and Simone Missirioli cancelled out two fine individual strikes from Gregoire Defrel and Franco Brienza.

Victory allowed Sassuolo to secure their Serie A safety, sending Cesena down with three games to spare after just a season in the top flight.

Atalanta won a thrilling match at Palermo 3-2 to all but secure Serie A safety despite having to play almost the whole second half with 10 men.

Brienza's goal for Cesena was almost a carbon copy of Lionel Messi's second against Bayern Munich in midweek, with the attacker putting Federico Peluso on his backside as he dribbled towards goal and slotted past Andrea Consigli in the Sassuolo goal.

Cesena are now 12 points behind Atalanta, who move up to 36 points, eight away from third-from-bottom Cagliari with nine points to play for.

They won a bruising encounter at Palermo thanks to a cool finish from Daniele Baselli in the fifth minute, an own goal from Palermo captain Sinisa Andjelkovic 12 minutes later and a rasping shot from Alejandro Gomez six minutes after the break.

They were lucky to escape with the win after goalkeeper Vlada Avramov was sent off for kicking Franco Vazquez.

The Serb had already dribbled around Vazquez when he dawdled, allowing the Italy midfielder to nip in and steal the ball just as Avramov was set to kick it before being brought down by a whack to the back of the leg.

However with the scores at 3-1 and 35 minutes left to play Luca Rigoni thumped his penalty against the bar.

He made amends for that miss on the 68th minute when he closed the gap to just one goal with a neat finish, but despite piling on the pressure the home side couldn't find the equaliser.

Sampdoria consolidated their position in the Europa League places after hammering Udinese 4-1 with a brace from Roberto Soriano and two more from Afriyie Acquah and Alfred Duncan.

Sinisa Mihajlovic's side move up to fifth on 54 points, two ahead of Fiorentina, who travel to Empoli later on Sunday, and five behind Napoli, who can close the gap on second-placed Roma to just two points with a win at already-relegated Parma.

Lazio can move above Roma and into second with a win against Europa League-chasing Inter Milan in Rome on Sunday evening.

Luca Toni's 19th league goal of an astonishing season for the veteran Verona striker wasn't enough for his side to win their local derby with Chievo in Sunday's early game.

The 37-year-old completed a six-minute turn around from a goal down when he volleyed home his 13th goal in 14 games to put the home side 2-1 up in the 26th minute following Paloschi's ninth minute opener and Juanito Gomez's equaliser.

However a clumsy Rodriguez push on Sergio Pellissier five minutes before the break allowed the striker to level the scores from the spot and grab a point that matters little to either of the already-safe teams.