Cagliari defeated Genoa 2-1 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Serie A action on Saturday afternoon.
The home side took an early lead through Sebastian De Maio but Marco Sau’s equalizer and Victor Ibarbo’s late winner secured an important away victory for the Isolani.
The home side wasted no time in opening the scoring when De Maio tapped in a rebound from in close off a Vlada Avramov save after three minutes to give the Grifone the early 1-0 advantage.
Giovanni Marchese nearly threw away the advantage in the 20th minute when his pass for Mattia Perin ran short, allowing Victor Ibarbo to trouble the goalkeeper before the goalkeeper managed to clear the ball away.
Alberto Gilardino had a great chance in the 24th minute when he got in behind the Cagliari defence and was one-on-one with Avramov but his weak effort was cleared off the line by Davide Astori to keep the score at 1-0.
The clearance would prove crucial as the Isolani levelled the score in the 37th minute. Sau found his way behind the Genoa defence before deftly chipping over an onrushing Perin to level the score at 1-1 before the close of the first half.
The Sardi almost took the lead after the restart when Sau did well to control a pass from Ibarbo but the striker’s effort went just wide of goal.
The away side continued to keep the pressure up in the 63rd minute when Ibarbo danced his way past the Genoa defence down the left before sending in a cross to the far post that Daniele Dessena only just failed to latch on to.
The Colombian would make his mark in the 82nd minute when Sau muscled his way through the Genoa defence before having his effort saved by Perin. However the rebound would fall on to the left foot of Ibarbo who pushed his effort to the back of the net to make it 2-1 for the away side.
Genoa thought they had equalized in the dying moments of the match when Gilardino tapped in a Stefano Sturaro cross but the Italian was ruled offside, allowing Cagliari to take home an important victory as they look to secure their position in the Serie A for next season.
Follow Adriano Boin on Twitter: @Boin44
