Cagliari made a strong start to Serie A: they beat Parma 0-1 at the Tardini in a relegation battle. Romano scored with a spectacular left-footed strike.
The Rossoblù lined up in a 4-3-2-1 formation, with Deiola and Rodríguez preferring Mina in defense, and Maldini making his debut from the start . The number 70, who had already made his debut for Cagliari as a substitute in the Coppa Italia against Arezzo, made a good run down the right in the fourth minute and passed to Mendy, whose shot was blocked. Parma made its presence felt in the 13th minute, following a mistake by Fazzini, Bernabé passed it straight to Touré, and Caprile saved a right-footed shot from the edge of the box.
The first big chance of the match came in the 15th minute for Cagliari, when Maldini received the ball twenty meters away and curled it onto his right foot for a splendid curling shot: Corvi was outplayed, and the shot went just wide of the top corner . After the half-time cooling-off, Maldini once again made his presence felt when Obert passed him in the box in the 28th minute, and he—rather than shoot—tried to dribble and lacked the momentum to finish the move.
Parma made a comeback in the 35th minute, with a cross from the right blocked by Zé Pedro at the edge of the box, where Ordóñez picked out a low shot that went wide. But Cagliari came close again to taking the lead a minute later, with an assist from Obert on the left for Mendy, who turned in the box and fired a drop shot. His shot was decisively deflected by Ndiaye, which hit the post . In the 42nd minute, Bernabé's left-footed shot went wide. It was again the Gialloblù, in the 44th minute, with a free kick that was laid off by Troilo and Ordóñez's header going wide. At the start of three minutes of added time, Romano's free kick sent captain Deiola heading the ball into the side-netting.
The second half resumed without changes, with Maldini playing Winks in the middle from the left in the 52nd minute, who had space to shoot; his right-footed effort from twenty meters was saved on the ground by Corvi. Parma surged forward, shooting in the 58th minute from a free kick played by Bernabé to Valeri (Caprile saved on the ground), and a minute later, they capitalized on a Cagliari error coming out to cross from Keita to Lontani (left-footed shot over). .
