Lecce beat Monza 3-2

Lecce beat Monza 3-2 at the Stadio Comunale Via del Mare, and the match was effectively decided in a frenzied 21-minute opening spell in which the hosts scored three times — the third arriving just 60 seconds after Monza had briefly threatened to make it a contest.

The opener came at the 3rd minute, Lecce midfielder Lassana Coulibaly finishing from an assist by Ivan Ilić, and the pattern was set immediately: Ilić pulling strings, Coulibaly arriving with purpose. Seven minutes later, Lecce defender Tiago Gabriel made it 2-0, again with Ilić providing the assist — two goals, two deliveries from the same source inside ten minutes. Monza midfielder Ricardo Mangas, assisted by Samuele Birindelli, pulled one back at the 20th minute to make it 2-1, a moment that might have unsettled a side whose defensive record coming in — five goals conceded in three Serie A matches — offered little reassurance. It did not unsettle them. At the 21st minute, Coulibaly scored again, this time assisted by Danilo Veiga, restoring the two-goal cushion and, in practical terms, closing the match as a competitive question before the half-hour mark.

Coulibaly is the player this match belongs to. The Lecce midfielder scored both of his side's goals that mattered most — the opener that set the tone and the 3-1 that answered Monza's only moment of genuine threat. A brace in the first 21 minutes, with assists coming from two different teammates, speaks to a player integrated into the team's attacking patterns rather than operating as an isolated finisher. His withdrawal was not required: he completed the match, though Lecce's substitution activity was heavy elsewhere, with five changes made across the second half. Coulibaly's double was the spine of the result.

Monza's situation is harder to read charitably. Ivan Jurić's side came into this fixture having collected just one point from their opening three Serie A matches, with eight goals conceded — and they were undone here in a manner that replicated that defensive fragility almost exactly. Three goals against before the midpoint of the first half is not a tactical problem that substitutions can solve, and Jurić made four changes in the second half, including Exequiel Zeballos and Patrick Cutrone entering at the 64th minute. Zeballos did score at the 89th minute to make it 3-2 — a goal that gave the scoreline a degree of respectability without altering the outcome. Monza's three goals conceded here, added to eight already shipped in Serie A, points to a structural vulnerability that personnel changes alone have not addressed.

Lecce came into this match having won just one of their last four, with two goals scored across those fixtures. The 3-2 result doubles their Serie A goal tally for the season in a single afternoon and gives Di Francesco's side a second win. Monza, across their last five matches in all competitions, have now won one, drawn one, and lost three — a sequence that includes heavy defeats against Inter and Udinese before this setback at Via del Mare.

Three goals in 21 minutes from a side that had managed two all season: that is the fact about this match that context cannot diminish.