[dukeofdavinci]

Serie A Week 35 - 27/4/08 (14.00 UK)

Reggina 2 - 1 Parma
Cigarini pen 25 (P), Cozza 56, 65 (R)
Stadio Granillo

Reggina fought back with a Ciccio Cozza brace to defeat 10-man Parma and clamber out of the bottom three, sending the Ducali in their place.

This was a relegation dogfight like few others, as one point separated the teams going into this round. Reggina were propping up the table in tandem with Empoli and Livorno, so the Gialloblu were desperate to avoid a similar fate. The Amaranto had picked up just four points from their last five games, while Parma had two points from the same period.

Hector Cuper's squad was decimated after the ill-tempered 2-1 home defeat to Napoli with bans to Fernando Couto, Andrea Gasbarroni, Giulio Falcone, McDonald Mariga and Paolo Castellini, joining the injured Bernardo Corradi, Andrea Pisanu, Igor Budan and Domenico Morfeo in the stands.

Edgar Barreto had the first chance for Reggina and Franco Brienza's effort was parried by Luca Bucci.

However, it was Parma who broke the deadlock on 25 minutes when Reginaldo was brought down with a clumsy Cirillo tackle from behind and youngster Luca Cigarini kept his cool to convert into the near top corner.

It got worse for the Amaranto, who lost Valdez to a thigh injury and had their own penalty appeals for a challenge on Ciccio Cozza waved away.

At the dawn of the second half Reggina poured forward and Bucci had his palms stung by Salvatore Aronica's powerful rising finish at the near post.

Parma's awful disciplinary record got even worse when Massimo Paci picked up his second booking for a very late tackle straight on Costa's ankle.

Moments later Reggina equalised. Bucci did all he could on Cirillo and so did the goalline clearance from Rossi, but Cozza finally tapped in from six yards to equalise.

It was one-way traffic now and Cozza volleyed inches over, but the Reggina hero got his second of the match to put his team in front. A loose ball fell to Cozza in the D and his right-foot strike took a decisive deflection off Ferdinand Coly to send Bucci the wrong way.

Reggina ran a risk with their third substitution as Cirillo received treatment for cramp, so the veteran had to grit his teeth and carry on.

Reggina: Campagnolo; Valdez (Costa 30), Cirillo, Aronica; Vigiani (Stuani 63), Barreto, Tognozzi, Modesto; Cozza (Cascione 70), Brienza; Amoruso

Parma: Bucci; Coly, Paci, Rossi, Zenoni; Dessena (Martinez 78), Morrone, Cigarini, Antonelli; Reginaldo, Lucarelli (Prijovic 83)

Ref: Saccani

Sent off: Paci 55 (P)

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