Jamie Vardy scored the opener as US Cremonese beat Pisa SC 3-0 on May 10, 2026, a result that put Cremonese back in the running in Serie A’s relegation fight. The 1-0 goal came before the match opened up, and the victory gave Cremonese momentum at exactly the point when the season was tightening.
The timing mattered because the Week 37 round also sent Sassuolo against Lecce, Udinese against Cremonese and Cagliari against Torino, with all three fixtures carrying weight in the battle to avoid the drop. Cagliari needed one point to be mathematically safe going into the final two rounds, while Lecce and Cremonese were separated by just one point, leaving little room for mistakes anywhere in the scramble.
Vardy’s goal was the sort that changes the feel of a run-in. It gave Cremonese the first strike, and by the end of the match they had a 3-0 win to show for it. For a side trying to claw its way clear, that is the kind of result that can reset the mood in a dressing room and force rivals to look over their shoulders.
The broader picture had already been set by the form table of the fight below mid-table. On April 20, Tiago Gabriel celebrated Lecce’s equalizer against ACF Fiorentina, and on April 27, Paul Mendy celebrated Cagliari’s opening goal against Atalanta BC. By May 10, the struggle had narrowed further, with Cremonese and Lecce effectively locked together as the final two rounds approached.
There was also the less glamorous side of the story: who was missing. Kingsley Ehizibue was suspended for Udinese, while Nicolò Zaniolo, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Alessandro Zanoli were injured. Cremonese were without Warren Bondo, Federico Baschirotto, Faris Moumbagna and Federico Ceccherini. In a stretch where every point mattered, absences like those shaped the margins just as much as the goals did.
That is why Vardy’s finish carries more than one result’s worth of value. It did not settle the relegation battle, but it left Cremonese alive in it, and it forced the next round of fixtures to matter even more.
