Maurizio Sarri claims anything could happen on Saturday afternoon when his Empoli side look to extend their fine home form at the Stadio Carlo Castellani as the Azzurri take on Cagliari.
Both sides have struggled thus far with Cagliari just a point above the drop zone while Empoli are a slender three points away from relegation after the first seven matches.
At a pre-match press conference Sarri stated, “We should expect a great, wide-open match where anything can happen until the final whistle, especially when you consider the physical characteristics of the team we are going to deal with.
“They are in great physical shape and that’s why the match is even more dangerous as we’ll have to take the pitch from the beginning and give it our all.”
Empoli are expected to start last season’s strike tandem of Massimo Maccarone and Francesco Tavano, who netted 37 goals between them in Serie B last year, yet have only hit the back of the net twice in 11 Serie A appearances this season.
As the squad faces a difficult stretch where the Tuscan club will play three matches in a week, finishing up with Juventus, Sarri indicated he has no plans to rotate the squad to avoid fatigue.
“For now I won’t make many changes, even if the schedule dictates we have a match every couple days.”
The 55-year old veteran of the Italian game shied away from comparisons to Cagliari’s Zdenek Zeman but admitted his admiration for the Czech and offered that both tacticians like to press take the match to their opponents.
