Newly promoted side, Cagliari will take on Sampdoria today at 21:00 CET at Stadio Sant’Elia.
Cagliari can be happy being back in 1st division football, after being promoted from Serie B. Their new campaign has not started as they wanted, losing to Genoa (3:1). Following the fixture against Genoa, Cagliari had an even harder task in front of them, AS Roma. Despite all odds, Cagliari managed to stand up against them. First few minutes of the match were as bad as it can get. AS Roma got a penalty in 6′ and Perotti managed to convert it into a goal. At the start of the second half AS Roma managed to score another one to get a 2 goal lead. 56′ was the time it all turned around, as Cagliari scored a goal of their own. Now being only 1 goal behind they pushed and surprisingly scored another one in the dying moments of the match (87′), thus getting a point against a very strong opponent. Following that spectacular performance, Cagliari lost to Bologna (2:1), won against Atalanta (3:0) and lost against Juventus (4:0).
If we can take anything from those performances it’s that Sant’Elia is a tough place to visit and 2 of the teams already felt the pressure of playing at Cagliari home pitch.
On the other side of the pitch we will see Sampdoria. Their start of the season was promising, as they have won 2 games in a row against Empoli (0:1) and Atalanta (2:1). Next 3 matches were the complete opposite. AS Roma (3:2), AC Milan (0:1) and Bologna (2:0) all proven to be too strong of a opponent for ” Blucerchiati”. Their form is terrible, as they are on a 3 game losing streak. In my opinion they should not even win the match against Atalanta. The only reason Sampdoria managed to get all 3 points is because of a penalty given to them in 35′.
VERDICT
Sampdoria is a relegation candidate judging on their recent performances and quite frankly I don’t see any improvement coming anytime soon. Now they are travelling to Sant’Elia, where even AS Roma struggled. In addition Sampdoria is a terrible team on the road so expect them to go home empty-handed.
Prediction: Cagliari -0.25
Odds: 1.96 Pinnacle
