Cremonese Vs Milan: Pavlovic and Leão seal late win
Milan edged a 2-0 victory at Cremonese on Sunday, 1 March 2026, after two very late strikes in Cremona, in a match billed as cremonese vs milan. Strahinja Pavlovic put Milan ahead in the 90th minute with his shoulder and Rafael Leão added a simple finish five minutes into stoppage time.
Cremonese Vs Milan late strikes
The opener arrived from a corner when Strahinja Pavlovic knocked the ball in at the 90th minute. A VAR review confirmed the ball had gone in off his shoulder rather than his arm. Rafael Leão then followed up that 90th-minute opener with a simple finish in added time, the second coming five minutes into stoppage time, leaving the final score 2-0 to the visitors.
How the goals came
the match sequence, Pavlovic’s effort followed a corner and required VAR to check whether it had struck an arm; officials concluded it had not and the goal stood. Leão finished the move that doubled Milan’s lead in stoppage time, the follow-up described as a routine finish after the 90th-minute breakthrough.
Title and table implications
Second-placed Milan moved closer to Champions League football next season after the two late strikes. One report states Milan moved back within 10 points of league leaders Inter entering next weekend’s derby, while an earlier account noted that with 12 rounds remaining they trailed Inter by 13 points. Inter had beaten Genoa 2-0 on Saturday. Next weekend’s Milan derby was described as having little more than local pride riding on it, with Inter speeding off into the distance with 11 games remaining in the league campaign.
Cremonese's relegation slide
Jamie Vardy’s Cremonese are sliding towards relegation to Serie B after a 13th straight match without a win, leaving them outside the drop zone on goal difference. Davide Nicola’s side sit 17th in the standings and are just outside the drop zone on goal difference after last week’s 3-0 loss to Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. The Grigiorossi are on their second-worst run ever in Italy’s top flight, failing to score in 10 of 12 winless matches, and they last tasted success in December. The club’s shock success in August, when Federico Bonazzoli’s strike sealed a famous 2-1 win, was noted alongside the long odds of repeating a league double — the first promoted team to do so since Ascoli in 1987.
Injuries, absences and team news
After suffering a serious facial injury last Sunday, Milan midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be out for several weeks. It remained unclear in the provided context whether Matteo Gabbia could recover from a flexor issue. Mexico striker Santiago Giménez was noted as the visitors’ only other absentee. Top scorers Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão had recently returned to fitness, and Christopher Nkunku and Niclas Fullkrug were mentioned as also being in contention alongside those two for attacking places.
Broader European context
The weekend featured other matches affecting European places. Sunday’s late Serie A match was Roma hosting Juventus in a key fixture for Champions League places; Juventus had kicked off the weekend in fifth, four points behind Roma, with the margin able to be cut to one or extend to seven depending on results. Juventus’ elimination from this season’s European competition by Galatasaray and Inter’s exit at the hands of Bodø/Glimt were both cited as having damaged Serie A’s hopes of landing a fifth place next season. In Ligue 1, third-placed Lyon took a five-point advantage into a game at fourth-placed Marseille.
Other league headlines
In the Bundesliga, Jamie Leweling grabbed a first-half double and Deniz Undav scored as Stuttgart cruised to a 4-0 home victory over Wolfsburg. Undav pounced on a poor clearance to put Stuttgart ahead with his 14th league goal after 21 minutes, Chris Fuehrich found Leweling on the half-hour mark to double the lead, Leweling scored again just before half-time with a volley from the right side of the box, and Nikolas Nartey scored with the final kick of the match. The win drew Stuttgart level with third-placed Hoffenheim on 46 points. Wolfsburg, who have not been relegated since promotion to the Bundesliga in 1997, have won just one of their last 10 games and sat second bottom, three points from the last safe spot. Elsewhere, Emre Can will miss the remainder of the season after scans confirmed the Borussia Dortmund captain tore an anterior cruciate ligament in Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat by Bayern Munich.
Sevilla and Betis derby
In La Liga, Sevilla came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Real Betis. Antony had sent Betis ahead in the 16th minute with an acrobatic overhead kick and Álvaro Fidalgo had tucked home a second before half-time when Abde Ezzalzouli played him in. Alexis Sánchez pulled one back for Sevilla after the hour mark with an angled header, and Isaac Romero thumped home from outside the box in the 85th minute to salvage a point at Betis’s temporary La Cartuja home. The draw left Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis fifth, eight points behind Atlético Madrid and Villarreal in third and fourth respectively, hampering their hopes of Champions League qualification.
By Jonathan O'Shea | 27 Feb 2026 14: 20, Last updated: 01 Mar 2026 09: 34
Match date: 1 March 2026.
