David Okereke scored the opener for Cremonese but they were held to a 1-1 draw by fellow relegation battlers Hellas Verona.

Cyril Dessers was also in action, but came from the bench in the final 20 minutes while Okereke started on the right of a front two, and only needed less than 10 minutes to get on the score sheet.

Okereke pounced on a mistake from Verona’s defense and slotted home calmly in the 9th minute, a lead Cremonese defended into the break.

The hosts needed one more goal to put the game beyond Verona for what would have been a morale-boosting victory, but things began to turn out for the worse when Giacomo Quagliata was shown a straight red card just after the hour mark (62′).

With one man down it was going to be a herculean task to maintain the lead and despite a lot of fight, they finally fell as Simone Verdi’s one-time shot grabbed the equalizer for Verona.

The result means nothing for Cremonese as they remain 19th on the log and seven points behind Verona in 18th place.