Parma closes with a win at Tardini, Pellegrino frames Sassuolo

Parma closed out the 2025/2026 season with a victory in the Emilian derby: Cuesta’s team beat Sassuolo 1-0 at the Tardini thanks to a header goal by Pellegrino in the final of the match valid for the 38th and final day of Serie A. Thanks to this success, the Crociati interrupted a series of three defeats in a row, moving up to 45 points in 12th place, while Grosso’s team finished 11th at 49.

An entertaining but goalless first half at the Tardini between two teams already saved long ago and with no more thoughts. The Gialloblu started better and created at least four goal balls in the first quarter of an hour with Pellegrino, Mikolajewski and Valeri, without success. On 33′, the neroverdi had a chance with young Macchioni, who failed to bag Corvi’s short rebound on Berardi’s earlier tito.

In the second half, the game remained balanced. Laurienté in 48′ gobbled up the ball for the lead, and in 62′ Turati overcame Nicolussi Caviglia’s conclusion from outside the box. In the last half hour the pace of the match drops sharply, but the Crusaders find the decisive acceleration in the 80′: Almqvist breaks through on the left and crosses into the box for Pellegrino, who scores his ninth goal of the season with a header. Plenty of fatigue in the final minutes of the match, the two teams never sank again and their season ended here.

Carlos Cuesta, in his first experience as head coach and only 30 years old, guided the Crusaders to a quiet salvation that few would have predicted at the beginning of the year. A job so appreciated that in recent days he was mentioned among the candidates for the award of best coach of Serie A 2025/2026 assigned by the League, which then went to Cristian Chivu, coach of Italian champion Inter and winner of the Coppa Italia.