Cagliari 3 Cesena 0
Mauricio Pinilla's hat-trick earned Cagliari all three points and sent Cesena even closer towards Serie B with victory at the Stadio Sant'Elia.
Pinilla opened the scoring in the 14th minute and added two more from the penalty spot as Cesena fell apart, losing both Giuseppe Colucci and Marco Rossi to red cards in the second half.
The win lifts the Sardinians into mid-table, leaving Cesena 14 points adrift of safety with 10 games remaining.
The Pinilla-show began in the second minute when his acrobatic overhead kick was parried by Francesco Antonioli.
He put Cagliari in front in the 14th minute with a simple tap-in after Thiago Ribeiro's shot from point-blank range was saved by Antonioli and the ball spilled out kindly.
Andrea Cossu jinked his way into the penalty area in the 20th minute, but his shot only found the side-netting.
Thiago Ribeiro wasted Cagliari's next chance in the 28th minute when Antonioli raced off his line and did enough to put him off.
Adrian Mutu tested Cagliari goalkeeper Michael Agazzi with a direct free-kick towards the top corner, but it was only a rare moment of danger to the Cagliari goal.
In stoppage time, Thiago Ribeiro fell to ground easily inside the penalty area with referee Carmine Russo pointing to the spot, more likely in realisation of his mistake several minutes earlier of not giving a clear penalty.
Pinilla sent his spot kick into the top left-hand corner to give Cagliari a two-goal advantage at the break.
Another dubious penalty was awarded 10 minutes into the second half when Marco Rossi was adjudged to have fouled Cossu right in the corner of the penalty area.
Pinilla stepped up and drilled the penalty straight down the middle to complete his hat-trick.
Victor Ibarbo came on for Cagliari and his trickiness led to two red cards being shown.
Giuseppe Colucci was first when he intervened to pick up a second yellow card on the hour mark before Rossi followed him for a second yellow card 18 minutes later.
Cesena have now picked up 10 red cards this season, not helping their quest to avoid relegation.