Serie A | Frosinone 5-1 Lecce: Fantastic Frosinone surge into European places

Frosinone flew into sixth place in the Serie A table, only one point behind Milan, as they swept sorry Lecce aside 5-1 in an historic start to the season.

The Canarini have been the surprise outfit of the season so far since their promotion from Serie B and fresh from the weekend’s epic 4-4 draw with Atalanta. Florian Grillitsch was still out with a muscular issue.

Lecce had Kialonda Gaspar suspended after the red card in a 2-0 defeat to Juventus, with Santiago Pierotti, Ivan Ilic, Lassana Coulibaly and Medon Berisha injured. There was another problem when Willem Geubbels sustained an injury in the warm-up, so Paco Esteban stepped in for a reshuffled 3-5-2 formation.

The first genuine opportunity was for Lecce, as Joel Monteiro’s right-foot curler from the edge of the area forced Lorenzo Palmisani to palm it out from under the crossbar.

After a couple of scuffed attempts, Frosinone broke the deadlock when Fares Ghedjemis laid it off from the right for Matteo Cichella to sweep in first-time from just inside the box, keeping his right-foot finish hard and low into the near bottom corner.

It was nearly 2-0 with Giorgi Kvernadze sent clear by Romano Schmid and cutting inside a defender, but Wladimiro Falcone got down for the desperate save on the angled drive.

There was controversy on the stroke of half-time, as first Omri Gandelman went down under pressure from Giacomo Calò, then Frosinone went on the counter-attack and Kvernadze tried to cut inside Jamil Siebert, with minimal contact considered enough by the referee for a penalty. It was a very soft spot-kick, but converted successfully by Calò.

Amar Fatah came on and Lecce returned to a four-man defence, the substitute stinging Palmisani’s gloves from distance, while Falcone needed big saves on the Ghedjemis low drive and Anthony Oyono header from the resulting corner.

Raimondo bolstered the scoreline when he started the move with a long kick from inside his own half to send Kvernadze down the left, then ran all the way forward to meet the return pass and sweep home from 10 yards. It was his eighth Serie A goal of the season, making him joint Capocannoniere with Monza’s Gustavo Varela.

Daniel Birligea had been on the field for just two minutes when he ran onto the inspired Romano Schmid ball and put it into the net. His celebration was cut short by the offside flag, but VAR confirmed he was level with the ball and the goal stood.

Lecce did eventually get something to show for their efforts when Olaf Gorter robbed Anouar El Azzouzi in midfield and went on the counter, Monteiro bending his right-foot finish into the far bottom corner from just inside the box.

With the last kick of the game, a corner was taken short and Kvernadze pulled back from the by-line for Birligea to turn in from seven yards and seal the rout.

It is the best ever start to a Serie A season for a newly-promoted club, equal with Juventus on their return from Serie B in 2007.

Frosinone 5-1 Lecce

Cichella 25 (F), Calò pen 45 (F), Raimondo 59 (F), Birligea 72, 94 (F), Monteiro 82 (L)

29-10-2026 17:30

MatchDay 9

Player statistic

1st half

2nd half

Match statistic

60 Possession % 40

26 Total shots 15

9 Shots on target 6

9 Shots off target 6

8 Blocked shots 3

10 Corners 3

4 Offsides

10 Fouls 17

Frosinone

Lecce

Starting lineups

22 Lorenzo Palmisani Goalkeeper

71 Aleksa Terzic Defender

20 Anthony Oyono Defender

3 Gabriele Calvani Defender 80'

30 Ilario Monterisi Defender

14 Giacomo Calò Midfielder 77'

16 Matteo Cichella Midfielder

10 Romano Schmid Midfielder 77'

9 Antonio Raimondo Attacker 70'

7 Farès Ghedjemis Attacker 70'

17 Giorgi Kvernadze Attacker

30 Wladimiro Falcone Goalkeeper

25 Antonino Gallo Defender

3 Corrie Ndaba Defender 46'

17 Danilo Veiga Defender

5 Jamil Siebert Defender

44 Tiago Gabriel Defender

16 Omri Gandelman Midfielder 58'

79 Oumar Ngom Midfielder

14 Youssef Maleh Midfielder 57'

99 Joel Monteiro Attacker 83'

69 Willem Geubbels Attacker

Substitutes

91 Sebastiano Desplanches Goalkeeper

2 Giorgio Cittadini Defender

5 Wisdom Amey Defender

24 Alessio Zerbin Attacker

12 Matteo Pisseri Goalkeeper

25 Kevin Akpoguma Defender

79 Gabriele Bracaglia Defender

73 Patrizio Masini Midfielder

89 Tomas Bobcek Attacker

90 Enzo Tchato Defender

11 Daniel Birligea Attacker 70'

40 Seydou Fini Attacker 70'

70 Luis Hasa Midfielder 77'

34 Anouar El Azzouzi Defender 77'

74 Omar Fayed Defender 80'

1 Marco Bleve Goalkeeper

32 Alexandru Borbei Goalkeeper

2 Ali Dembélé Defender

18 Gaby Jean Defender

8 Sadik Fofana Defender

31 Elijah Scott Defender

7 Amar Fatah Attacker 46'

9 Nikola Stulic Attacker 57'

28 Olaf Gorter Midfielder 57'

22 Paco Esteban Attacker

11 Konan N’Dri Attacker 58'

77 Mohamed Kaba Midfielder 83'