Palermo emerged victorious 1-0 at the Stadio Sant’Elia to condemn Cagliari to Serie B next season.
Franco Vasquez’s first half goal was enough to give the Rosanero the win, and despite their closest rivals for relegation, Atalanta, losing at home to Genoa, the Rossoblu are now mathematically down.
Vasquez had earlier had a free-kick which didn’t trouble Zeljko Brkic in the Cagliari goal. But the Italian international made no mistake in the ninth minute though, when a cross from Robin Quaison was only half cleared by Luca Rossettini and Vasquez turned smartly before firing the ball into the net.
Cagliari responded well and a neat one-two between Paul-Jose M’Poku and Duje Cop saw the Croatian’s shot well smothered by Stefano Sorrentino in the Palermo goal.
At the other end Vasquez was proving to be a menace for Cagliari and his cross from the left was met well by Andrea Belotti, who was in the side for the absent Paulo Dybala, but his effort was straight at Brkic.
M’Poku was also proving to be a livewire for the hosts and his tormenting of the Palermo defence allowed Danilo Avelar to get in on goal, but with only Sorrentino to beat, the Uruguayan missed the target.
Palermo were also having plenty of chances to increase their lead and a lively run and cross from Quaison wasn’t dealt with by Antonio Balzano but Ivalyo Chochev couldn’t take advantage as his shot went off target.
Cagliari were still fighting and Sorrentino had to be alert to fist away an Albin Ekdal shot.
It was proving to be end to end stuff at the Stadio Sant’Elia and Palermo had another great chance to increase their lead after some lovely interchange of passing between Vasquez and Belotti got Chochev in, but the Bulgarian’s heavy touch allowed Balzano to recover.
Cagliari thought they had equalised 10 minutes before half time but were denied by a miraclouis double save by Sorrentino who first denied Cop and then managed to get up and deny Diego Farias on the follow-up.
The second half started in the same fashion as the first with, that man, Vasquez exchanging passes with Belotti but his shot went narrowly over.
The home side were screaming for a penalty moments later when Farias felt he had been fouled in the area by Giancarlo Gonzalez but the referee, Angelo Cervellera, waved away the protests.
Gianluca Festa’s men weren’t giving up and Ekdal had another shot which was narrowly wide and then Sorrentino again had to be alert to deny Cop after a lovely pass from Daniele Dessena.
With Atalanta losing the home side knew that two goals were needed to keep their Serie A hopes alive, Because of this Palermo were always likely to get chances on the break and Quaison had the chance to seal it for Giuseppe Iachini’s side after being played in by Belotti but he missed the target with only Brkic to beat.
Frustrations were boiling over the Sardinians with both Ekdal and Modibo Diakite picking up yellow cards as Palermo started to squeeze out any enthusiasm out of the home side and Belotti had another chance to make the game safe for The Rosanero but his header from a corner was inches over.
Joao Pedro free-kick was easily pushed away by Sorrentino at the other end and Palermo had the last chance of the game with Accursio Bentivegna sprinting into the area and forced a great save out of Brkic as Cagliari’s 11 year stay in Serie A came to an end.
