Cagliari seeks first victory after 4 rounds without a win
After letting Verona score twice last weekend, Fabio Pisacane may have thought of a similar bad prospect to last week, when Cagliari suffered a 0-2 defeat to Bologna.
However, his team rose strongly in the last 15 minutes of the match, scoring two goals in a row thanks to Riyad Idrissi and Mattia Felici. In the end, the Sardinia team won a valuable point.
The draw in Veneto extended Cagliari's 4-match winless streak in Serie A (2 draws, 2 losses). Notably, both of their points have come away from home, while at Unipol Domus, the team suffered two consecutive defeats against Inter Milan and Bologna.
Sassuolo is not a strong opponent like the two teams above, so Cagliari will aim to win all 3 points when hosting the opponent. They are eager to regain the joy of a home win for the first time since mid-September - when they defeated Parma 2-0, then beat Frosinone in Coppa Italia with the same score.
Winning in front of the home crowd is even more important because Isolani often has a good record against Sassuolo in recent confrontations. Specifically, Cagliari have won all three of their most recent encounters, with a total score of 5-1 against Neroverdi.
Sassuolo aims for first victory at Cagliari in 8 years
New signing Sassuolo are off to a promising start in their return to Serie A, as they are 13th in the table with 10 points after 8 rounds. They have one point more than their opponent Cagliari, the team that Sassuolo will face in round 9.
However, Sassuolo have not won at Isolani's home ground since September 2017. That effort to end the 8-year wait promises to face many challenges, because the Sardinia team is determined to end a two-match winless streak at home.
Statistics show that most of the 20 confrontations between the two teams have been quite balanced, with half of the matches ending without a win or loss. Whether that scenario will happen again is still a big question mark, especially with Neroverdi drawing just one of his eight games this season.
Fabio Grosso's team, similar to Cagliari, is showing signs of slowing down in form when not winning in the last two rounds, after a series of two consecutive wins against Udinese (3-1) and Verona (1-0).
Sassuolo are also facing problems in scoring. After 5 consecutive matches, they have failed to score in two consecutive rounds - drawing with Lecce 0-0 and losing to Roma 0-1 last weekend.
Therefore, neroverdi's top goal in this trip to Sardinia is not only to end a series of three consecutive defeats against Cagliari, but also to regain the scoring feeling after a dry period.
Personnel situation
Cagliari entered the match against Sassuolo without any further losses after a 2-2 draw with Verona. However, Fabio Pisacane still does not have the service of a series of key players such as Andrea Belotti, Nicola Pintus, Alessandro Deiola, Alessandro Di Pardo, Yerry Mina and goalkeeper Boris Radunovic.
Although Mattia Felici has leveled Belotti's goalscoring record for the Sardinia team, the midfielder is likely to only feature from the bench.
Instead, Sebastiano Esposito and Gennaro Borrelli are expected to lead the attack in an effort to help Cagliari end a 4-match winless streak.
On the other hand, Sassuolo's Fabio Grosso faces more personnel problems. The possibility of Domenico Berardi and Filippo Romagna playing is still uncertain, while Daniel Boloca, tarik Muharemovic, Edoardo Pieragnolo, Laurs Skjellerup, Yeferson Paz and Giacomo Satalino are all definitely absent.
In that context, Andrea Pinamonti will be the biggest hope for the away team's attack in the away trip to Sardinia.
Expected lineup:
Cagliari: Caprile, Zappa, Pedro, Luperto, Palestra, Adopo, Prati, Folorunsho, Obert, Borrelli, Esposito.
Sassuolo: Muric, Walukiewicz, Idzes, Cande, Doig; Vranckx, Matic, Kone, Volpato, Pinamonti, Lauriente.
The match between Cagliari and Sassuolo takes place at 0:30 am on October 31 (Vietnam time).
