Cittadella beat Monza 3-0 in the first leg of the Serie B play-off semi-final thanks to a hat-trick from Enrico Baldini.
The 24-year-old scored two goals in the opening 21 minutes and finished the job with five minutes remaining in the second half.
Mario Balotelli started on the bench and was thrown in after 83 minutes, when his side were 2-0 down.
Monza can still turn it around with a 3-0 win at home on Thursday as they finished above Cittadella in the regular season.
Venezia and Lecce play the second semi-final this evening.
It kicks off at 19.45 UK time.
Cittadella-Monza 3-0
Cittadella: Kastrati; Ghiringhelli, Adorni, Frare (Perticone 28), Donnarumma; Proia (Pavan 63), Iori (D’Urso 75), Branca (Gargiulo 64); Vita; Tsadjout (Ogunseye 75),
Monza: Di Gregorio; Pirola, Paletta (Scaglia 14), Bettella; Sampirisi, Frattesi, Barberis, Armellino (Colpani 63), Carlos Augusto (D’Alessandro 83); Diaw (Gytkjaer 63), Mota Carvalho (Balotelli 82).