Only Cremonese (3) and Sampdoria (3) had picked up fewer points than Salernitana at home prior to this contest, and the Granata were eager to hit the ground running quickly.
Krzysztof Piatek wasted two gilt-edged chances to draw first blood for the hosts. His flicked attempt went wide following some lovely link-up play involving Lassana Coulibaly and Domen Crnigoj, before heading over the bar from Junior Sambia’s pinpoint cross.
Monza were literally left bloodied after Luca Caldirola, Alessio Cragno and Pablo Mari were all involved in a collision with Flavius Daniliuc. Following a lengthy stoppage, the quartet were able to continue, with Cragno and Marí donning claret-soaked head bandages.
There was lift-off in the Sousa era seven minutes into the second half thanks to Coulibaly, who was teed up by Antonio Candreva and fired an unstoppable curling right-footed strike into the top corner.
Guillermo Ochoa Ochoa preserved Salernitana’s lead with an excellent stop to keep out Dany Mota’s lead, before thwarting Carlos Augusto on the follow-up.
However, there was more magic in Salerno courtesy of Grigoris Kastanos, who doubled Salernitana’s advantage with a sweetly-struck volley after Domagoj Bradaric’s deflected into the Cypriot’s path.
Candreva added a third to effectively kill off the contest, reacting quickest on the rebound to slot the ball in off the underside of the bar after Cragno could only parry Piatek’s initial strike into the skipper’s path.
It got from bad to worse for the visitors when Giulio Donati was shown a second yellow card for handball, as Raffaele Palladino’s side were reduced to 10 men.
This was a much-needed three points for the Granata, as Sousa claimed his first win as boss after a disappointing 2-0 debut defeat in the dugout to Lazio a week ago.
The Campania outfit remain 16th, but move seven points clear of the bottom three. Meanwhile, Monza’s hopes of a top-half finish took a hit after succumbing to consecutive defeats without scoring and sit 11th.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Antonio Candreva (Salernitana)
