Cagliari will be hoping the visit of Sassuolo on Saturday will help gain the vital three points needed to potentially put pressure on the teams around them.
The Sardinians remain third bottom of Serie A after a poor first half of the season under Zdenek Zeman, and have brought in Gianfranco Zola.
The former West Ham and Watford manager has, so far, has taken four points from his first three games in charge and will be hoping the Isolani can build on their last game at the Stadio Sant’Elia, a 2-1 victory over fellow strugglers Cesena.
Sassuolo will be no pushovers though as once again Eusebio Di Francesco’s side are performing well above expectations and currently lie in 11th position, nine points ahead of their opponents after losing only one of their last 14 matches, although a lot of those have been draws. A win on Saturday in Sardinia could see them move up to seventh, albeit temporarily.
Talking of draws both sides come into this match after entertaining draws last week. Cagliari rescued a point away in Udine thanks to an injury time penalty from Danilo Avelar to make it 2-2 after Joao Pedro had opened the scoring early on.
The shoe was on the other foot for Sassuolo who drew 3-3 away in Genoa, but will feel dissappointed having led three times in the game, thanks to two goals from Domenico Berardi either side of a Stefano Missiroli strike, only to concead to a penalty in injury time.
In the meetings between the two sides last season both games finished as score draws and that pattern was repeated back in August with a 1-1 draw at the Mapei Stadium when Marco Sau cancelled out Simone Zaza’s opener.
Zola has had Cagliari working hard on the defensive side of things this week in training but have injury worries over Andrea Cossu, Antonio Balzano, Luca Ceppatilli and crucially Colombian international Victor Ibarbo who has missed the last four games with a foot injury. As a result, Marco Sau could come back into the starting line-up having only being a substitute last week at Udinese and Zola could also choose to go with Diego Farias for Joao Pedro to add a bit more of an attacking threat.
The visitors have doubts over the experienced Federico Peluso, Lorenzo Ariaudo and Ettore Gliozzi who have all been training away from the squad in the run up to the game, they could bring in a more defensive minded player such as Davide Biondini
Form Guide: Cagliari (L-L-W-L-D) Sassuolo (D-W-D-L-D)
Expected Starting XIs
Cagliari: Brkic, Pisano, Rossentini, Capuano, Danilo Avelar, Crisetig, Dessena, Conti, Ekdal, Diego Farias, Sau
Sassuolo: Consigli, Gazzola, Terranova, Acerbi, Longhi, Brighi, Biondini, Missiroli, Sansone, Zaza, Berardi
