Cagliari's recent woes continued as they slumped to a home defeat against Pescara at a scarcely-populated Stadio Is Arenas.
Goals from Christian Terlizzi and Vladimir Weiss lifted Pescara to a second win in five days and heaped further misery on Cagliari, who replied late on through a Mauricio Pinilla penalty but also lost Luca Rossettini to a red card.
The Sardinian club's start to the new season has been blighted by rows over the safety of their new stadium, and played in front of around 5,000 season-ticket holders after being permitted to open just one section of the ground.
That was at least an improvement on previous home games this season, which were declared behind-closed-doors fixtures due to safety concerns.
Matters came to a head last weekend when Cagliari club president Massimo Cellino defied local authority orders by instructing fans to attend their home game with Roma.
As a result of Cellino's announcement, the game was cancelled and a 3-0 walkover victory was awarded to Roma.
The ruling was followed by a 2-0 loss to AC Milan, with the result condemning Cagliari to a third defeat in a week and bottom spot in the Serie A standings.
The hosts had the best of what chances there were in a cagey first period, with Victor Ibarbo and Marco Sau both firing just wide with the clearest openings, but all the drama was reserved for the second half.
The breakthrough arrived in the 49th minute when Terlizzi's free-kick took a deflection off the defensive wall and nestled in the left corner of Michael Agazzi's net.
Five minutes later Cagliari were in more trouble as Rossettini picked up a second yellow card following a bad foul on Weiss.
The Slovakian scored a wonder goal to secure Pescara a 1-0 win over Palermo on Wednesday and he was on target again in the 78th minute as he turned home Matti Lund Nielsen's low cross from close range to make it two.
The hosts were given a glimmer of hope in the 82nd minute when Terlizzi handled in the area to concede a penalty that Pinilla tucked away in the left corner, but Cagliari could not force an equaliser, with Ibarbo skewing wide with their final chance a minute into stoppage time.
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