Cagliari entertain Udinese at the Stadio Sant’Elia on Sunday evening in the final week of Serie A action.
The Rossoblu’s dismal season has culminated in relegation, which was officially confirmed by their 1-0 loss to Palermo two weeks back, after 11 successive seasons in Serie A as they sit in 18th place in the Serie A table on 31 points.
Meanwhile, Udinese themselves have not had the best of seasons although they are ten points safe from the bottom three – occupying the 16th place on 41 points. In fact, their coach Andrea Stramaccioni has come under immense pressure of late as his side are on a run of three consecutive losses in Serie A and have collected all three points just once in the previous five league games.
On the other hand, the mood around the Sardinian outfit should be better following their 1-0 win over fellow relegated side Cesena last week. The slender win over the Cavallucci Marini also meant that Gianluca Festa’s men have tasted defeat only once in four Serie A matches.
The Zebrette may be buoyed by the fact they last won in Sardinia in April 2013, Roberto Pereyra getting the only goal of the match, while earlier this season the two teams fought out an entertaining 2-2 encounter with Cagliari grabbing an injury time equaliser.
Despite bearing the third worst defence in Serie A this campaign, with 65 goals conceded, the home side are yet to let in more than a single goal since their 3-0 loss to Napoli on April 19. In contrast, the Zebrette have been defensively shambolic in recent months, having kept just one clean sheet since their 0-0 draw against Atalanta in mid-March.
The Stadio Sant’Elia has not been fortress for the home team they would like. With the exception of a
4-0 demolition of Parma this month, Cagliari’s last home victory was a 2-1 result over Sassuolo in January.
Stramaccioni will most likely welcome back club top scorer Antonio Di Natale, who only played 45 minutes against Sassuolo last week, back to the starting line-up. The Italian centre forward has been in good form of late, netting three goals in the last five Serie A games.
The same cannot be said about Di Natale’s counterpart Marco Sau, who scored his first goal since scoring in the 4-0 win over Empoli last October, in last weekend’s 1-0 over Cesena
Udinese defenders Thomas Heurtaux and Maurizio Domizzi are doubtful for this fixture with niggling injury issues, whilst midfielders Lucas Evangelista and Melker Hallberg are due to have late fitness tests.
For the home side, goalkeeper Simone Colombi and defenders Francesco Pisano, Marco Capuano, Luca Ceppitelli have been ruled out, along with midfielder Albin Ekdal.
Form Guide: Cagliari (W-L-D-W-L), Udinese (L-L-L-W-L)
