Manuel De Luca (right) celebrates: He has just scored his first Serie A goal. © ANSA / FILIPPO VENEZIA

First Serie A goal: Manuel De Luca becomes a hero

Manuel De Luca is playing for Serie A club Cremonese this year. On Friday, the Lombardy side celebrated their second win in two matches. The Pfattner native arguably had the loudest cheer of all the Cremonese players.

August 29, 2025

From: mv

Friday evening, Cremonese vs. Sassuolo, second matchday in Serie A: It's already injury time, the score is 2-2. Suddenly, there's contact in the penalty area, protests—and the referee points to the spot: penalty for Cremonese. And who takes it? Manuel De Luca, of all people.

The 27-year-old Pfattner takes a run-up, takes a deep breath, and scores! In his fourth Serie A game, De Luca celebrates his first goal. The South Tyrolean, of all people, fires his team to their second win in just two matches since being promoted to Italy's top flight. The sweet bonus: Cremonese are top of the table, at least for one night.

De Luca celebrates his goal. © ANSA / Davide Casentini

De Luca helped Cremonese achieve promotion to Serie A last season. Last year, the 27-year-old made 37 appearances, scoring ten goals and providing five assists. The Pfattner also scored against FC Südtirol, and is now at the peak of his career so far.

De Luca has now made four Serie A appearances. He already made one appearance each for Sampdoria in 2022 and 2023, and has made two substitute appearances for Cremonese this season.

Milan shows a reaction

In the evening match, Milan beat Lecce 2-0. The goals came from Loftus-Cheek (66') and Pulisic (86'). This was the right response from the Milanese after their league campaign got off to a disappointing start a week ago with a 1-2 defeat to Cremonese.