Cagliari drew 1-1 with Sassuolo at the Stadio Citta del Tricolore on Sunday evening on week one of the new Serie A season.
Zdenek Zeman’s return to the Italian game was not as open and entertaining as many would have thought but the wily coach was effective as they walked away from Sassuolo with a point.
The final three minuts of the first half was about as typical of watching a Zeman side as it gets with his team equalising through Marco Sau after Simone Zaza scored one of the goals of the weekend with a left footed volley into the visitor’s top corner.
The first half started in a pattern that would follow the majority of the first half with Sassuolo hitting Cagliari on the counter attack through Zaza, Berardi and Sansone.
The home side found themselves through on goal on a number of occasions early on with Zaza having a goal ruled out for a poorly timed challenge on the on rushing Colombi in the Cagliari goal.
After little chances the two goals at the end of the half lit the contest up.
Minutes after Zaza had missed a glorious chance a long clearance found Sansone through a defensive mix up from the visitors.
Sansone then sends a teasing cross towards Zaza who watched it all the way and with his left foot scored a world class volley back across Colombi’s goal and into the top corner.
Cagliari replied in the most effective way as Sau levelled things up with a close range tap in from a low Balzano cross with Zeman’s side’s first shot on target of the contest.
The second half carried on in the same way with Sassuolo creating the majority of the chances and Cagliari holding on.
Zaza, recently called up for Italy, looked the most dangerous player on the pitch with his link up play with Berardi and Sansone a joy to watch.
Cagliari under Zeman seemed to have a more solid look than teams of the attacking coach’s past but he managed to get his team off the mark with their first point of the season against a very good Sassuolo.
