Overview
After being promoted thanks to a victory in the Serie B play-offs last season, Cremonese is currently safe in the mid-table area with 21 points. However, the recent series of results is holding back their breakthrough momentum.
After defeats against Napoli and Torino, and a goalless draw with Lazio, Davide Nicola's team started the new year with a disappointing stumble against the bottom team.
After 372 minutes of goallessness, Cremo continued to be deadlocked against Fiorentina's low-rated defense at the Stadio Franchi in a tense atmosphere, then was finished off by Moise Kean with a decisive goal in the final minutes.
From a fairly harmonious coordination period, the striker duo Jamie Vardy and Federico Bonazzoli began to fall into a state of silence. If they do not improve soon, Grigiorossi are at risk of going through a 5-match winning streak in Serie A - something that has never happened in the club's history.
Although the Lombardy team has also lost 3/4 of their most recent home matches, they still have a basis to cling to historical factors when hosting Cagliari. In their encounters at Cremona in the highest league, Cremonese has won all 3 recent matches, scoring a total of 8 goals.
However, the last time the two teams met in Serie A was in February 1996, and Cagliari also had a few victories against Cremonese in Coppa Italy in the past decade.
If they win another victory in the middle of the week, the representative of Sardinia will equalize points with the home team (21 points), thereby increasing the gap with the dangerous group.
With a record of 18 wins and 18 losses, Cagliari is having a more positive result than the same period in the previous two seasons, including the period led by Nicola.
Nicola's successor on the Cagliari hot seat, new coach Fabio Pisacane, is going in the right direction in the goal of helping Isolani stay in the league, aiming for a third consecutive season in Serie A.
After a rare away win to close the year 2025, the recent defeat to AC Milan caused them to drop to 14th place. However, Cagliari is still unable to relax, as the gap with the relegation zone still contains many risks and the road ahead is predicted to be full of challenges.
Personnel situation
Because Warren Bondo is expected to recover from a muscle injury in time, causing him to withdraw in the match against Fiorentina, Cremonese almost has the optimal force. Only Jeremy Sarmiento and Michele Collocolo are definitely absent.
In attack, after a long period of goallessness, both Vardy and Bonazzoli are facing the risk of being removed from the starting lineup. However, Bonazzoli still has a significant foothold as he has participated directly in 5 goals against Cagliari.
If one of the two spearheads has to give way, the South American attacking duo Franco Vazquez and Antonio Sanabria are accelerating to win a starting spot.
On the other side, Cagliari is likely to place their trust in Semih Kilicsoy for the role of leading the attack, but Sebastiano Esposito's condition is still a question mark as this striker is not sure to recover from injury in time.
Esposito is having a calf problem, so he may have to sit out with Alessandro Deiola, Andrea Belotti, Mattia Felici and Michael Folorunsho.
Positive news for Fabio Pisacane is that Zito Luvumbo has just returned after the African Cup, when the Angolan team stopped from the group stage.
Expected lineup:
Audero, Terracciano, Baschirotto, Bianchetti, Barbieri, Payero, Grassi, Vandeputte, Pezzella, Bonazzoli, Vardy.
Caprile, Zappa, Mina, Luperto, Palestra, Adopo, Prati, Mazzitelli, Obert, Gaetano, Kilicsoy.
The match between Cremonese and Cagliari takes place at 0:30 AM on January 9 (Vietnam time).
