Cagliari took another huge step towards Serie A safety with a 3-2 home win over a disjointed Roma side at the Sardegna Arena on Sunday evening.
The Rossoblu took the lead early on through Charalampos Lykogiannis, but were pegged back by Carles Perez. Leonardo Semplici’s side started the second half superbly, with Razvan Marin and Joao Pedro giving them a 3-1 lead. Federico Fazio headed a goal back for Paolo Fonseca’s team but it wasn’t enough.
It took just four minutes for Cagliari to take the lead. Nahitan Nandez ghosted past Amadou Diawara and played a low ball into the box which was tapped in by Lykogiannis.
After looking devoid of ideas, Roma carved Cagliari apart after 26 minutes. Lorenzo Pellegrini drove at the defence and played a good pass through to Perez. He beat his man and saw his shot ping back off the post into his midriff, and he didn’t waste the second attempt.
Ten minutes into the second half, Cagliari retook the lead in emphatic style. Marin picked up the ball about 25 yards out, and thumped it past Pau Lopez into the bottom corner.
By just over the hour mark, the Sardinians had a third. Joao Pedro expertly glanced a corner in at the near post to seemingly put his side on the way towards three straight league victories.
The comeback began for the Giallorossi with 20 minutes to go though, as Fazio scored a very similar header to Joao Pedro’s down the other end to make it 3-2.
This win lifts Cagliari out of the bottom three, but they stay level on points with 18th placed Benevento. The Sardinians have the worse record of the two on head to head, which is Serie A’s decider but doesn’t come into effect until the two sides have met twice. They face off in Campania on May 9.
For Roma, they stay in seventh and look destined to fight for a Europa Conference League place.