Scudetto hopefuls Roma were given an early scare when Mile Svilar was required to make a smart stop from Federico Bonazzoli inside the opening 15 minutes.
Matias Soule soon made the Cremonese man rue that missed opportunity with a sweet strike from the edge of the box, opening the scoring for the Giallorossi. The attacker set it neatly out of his feet before he whipped it beyond Emil Audero to break the deadlock with his fourth league goal of the season.
Things nearly got worse for Cremonese when Lorenzo Pellegrini swiped the ball in from Audero’s parry, only for the effort to be ruled out for offside to the delight of the home faithful.
An entertaining half continued to produce chances, with Svilar pulling off a couple of desperate stops to thwart Jari Vandeputte in quick succession, before Audero tipped over from Pellegrini’s first-time shot.
The visitors were then given a reprieve when the referee overturned his decision to award a Cremonese penalty in first-half stoppage time. Roma boss Gian Piero Gasperini would have been relieved by that call, but his emotions got the better of him in the second period when he was sent off for dissent towards the officials.
Banished to the stands, Gasperini was able to get a good view of two quickfire Roma goals that took the game away from Davide Nicola’s charges.
Evan Ferguson marked his return from injury with his first Serie A goal, calmly tucking the ball home after his teammates had kept the ball alive from a cross that left Audero floundering.
The speedy Wesley then got in on the act, racing on to Stephan El Shaarawy’s perfectly weighted through ball before delicately lifting it over the onrushing goalkeeper.
Despite condemning Cremonese to a third consecutive defeat, Roma ended the game with a tinge of frustration, as Ferguson’s late disallowed effort was followed by Francesco Folino heading home a consolation from a deep corner, which denied the visitors a seventh league clean sheet of the campaign.
