Cagliari defeated Roma 4-2 at the Stadio Olimpico in Friday night Serie A action.
The match went into halftime level at 1-1 after a Francesco Totti free-kick cancelled out an early Radja Nainggolan strike, but a terrible error from goalkeeper Mauro Goicoechea saw Roma fall behind early in the second period and never recover as Cagliari piled on the misery.
The visitors claimed the first chance of the day, and took full advantage to go up 1-0 only three minutes in. Marco Sau burst down the right flank on the counter and played the ball into the box for Nainggolan to finish fist time across the face of goal.
Goicoechea came rushing off his line to claim Sau’s through ball in front of the onrushing Thiago Ribiero, whilst Erik Lamela ballooned over the bar from Totti’s headed assist at the other end.
Ivan Piris blasted over from miles out, and Lamela’s drive after a mazy run through the middle was crucially blocked by Davide Astori to force a fruitless corner.
Sau sprung the offside trap to go clear on goal following another Roma corner, wasting a golden opportunity as he ultimately dragged his shot wide of the mark.
On 24 minutes Pablo Osvaldo attempted to get the home side back into the game with a daring bicycle kick on a chipped ball from Totti, but didn’t connect solidly, allowing Michael Agazzi to easily save.
10 minutes later, however, the hosts found the equalizer. Dodo was felled on the edge of the box to win a free-kick, and Totti made no mistake in smashing home inside the near post from Alessandro Florenzi’s lay-off. Agazzi was able to get a hand to the ball, but the powerful shot paid no heed to his save attempt.
Dodo was off target, from distance whilst Panagiotis Tachtsidis sliced high and wide on the half volley as the sides went into halftime even at 1-1.
After the restart, Cagliari immediately took the lead once again thanks to a calamitous error by Goicoechea. Danilo Avelar floated a harmless cross into the box for an easy catch, but as the Uruguayan came down he inexplicably fumbled the ball into his own net to gift the Isolani a goal.
On 53 minutes matters got ever worse for the Giallorossi, as Victor Ibarbo got to the byline to pick out Sau for the Italian to head home a third for the visitors.
Agazzi beat away a rocket from Totti looked to recover from a devastating start to the second half, with Zdenek Zeman also replacing Tachtsidis and Florenzi with Daniele De Rossi and Marquinho respectively.
Roma were dominating possession but struggled to break down the Isolani as they defended in numbers.
In the 71st minutes matters deteriorated further for the hosts, as Francesco Pisano slotted past Goicoechea on the rebound after Sau cracked a curling effort from distance off the crossbar.
Moments later Lamela had the ball in the back of the net for the Giallorossi, but was ruled offside.
Osvaldo cut inside from the left to fizz one over the bar, and soon after just failed to get on the end of Lamela’s ball across the box with the goal gaping.
Dodo tried his hand from distance as the clocked continued to near full-time, but saw his attempt charged down by Agazzi.
Marquinho grabbed a consolation in stoppages for Roma, lashing past the keeper on the turn after controlling Lamela’s ball from the left flank in the area, but was greeted only by a hearty round of whistles from the crowd.
You can follow Ian Capasso on Twitter: @capasso10
