Cagliari suffers but in the end beats Spal 2-1: a heart-pounding match

Cagliari suffers, but in the end beats Spal 2-1 and momentarily grabs fifth place.

Compared to Cittadella, Ranieri leaves out Zappa and Falco, inserting Lella in the middle, with Nandez on the right wing, and Luvumbo alongside Lapadula in front. Spal loses Valzania due to injury after 12 minutes and, a minute later, the first ring arrives with Lella, high ball. But in the 15th minute Cagliari passes: Luvumbo earns a free-kick on the right and Kourfalidis's serve finds Altare's head for the 1-0 goal.

The advantage reassures the rossoblùs, even too much. And in the 42nd minute, surprisingly, the equalizer arrives: a long cross from Prati, Nandez lets Celia pass behind him and the number 21 from Ferrara makes it 1-1. And with a score of 1-1, the teams go to rest.

At the start of the second half, Zappa replaces Lella and Nandez is back in the middle, while De Rossi inserts La Mantia for Rabbi. Rhythms and tension rise, especially when in the 18th minute the referee disallows an own goal by Alfonso because the ball kicked from the corner by Kourfalidis had already gone out. In the 24th minute Cagliari went through a corner again with Altare, but it was again the Var who signaled an irregular charge by Lapadula.

But in the 31st minute the flicker of the centre-forward, on Azzi's cross, gave the real 2-1. The ending is thrilling. In the 49th minute Meccariello's right-footed shot was deflected for a corner by Capradossi. In the 50th minute, first Zappa and then above all Rog had the chance to close it on the counterattack, but the winger fired out and the Croatian let himself be hypnotized by Alfonso. It ends with a red light for Maistro and the second victory of the Ranieri era.