Roma-Cagliari, Nicola: «Great performance, lost due to a fortuitous goal»

Cagliari was patched up by the many absences that showed up at the Olimpico this afternoon against Roma. But they played on equal terms and lost 1-0 on a casual rebound that favored Dovbyk. "Cagliari played a great game and Roma won thanks to their qualities," Davide Nicola said about the defeat . "The goal was fortuitous and we accept that, but we had the ability to interpret the two phases of the game very well with our characteristics. I'm very happy with the boys, so much so that at the end of the game I gathered them together for thirty seconds to say that I'm satisfied."

The best player on the pitch in Roma-Cagliari was the Giallorossi goalkeeper Mile Svilar. «He does his job, when it is decisive he does his duty», Nicola regrets. « In the first half we had the chance with a counterattack where Zortea had to keep the ball lower . It's not like we can play two halves in the opponent's half, especially against certain teams. As always we try to interpret two strategies: in the first half, in three or four circumstances, we could have been more qualitative in the exit of the first pass. We will try to improve this».

Cagliari switched to 3-5-1-1 today. Nicola explains how he evaluated the absences : «We started training two modules in retreat, in fact right at the beginning we had used this module with variations such as 3-4-2-1 and 3-5-2. It was still under construction and we worked on something that could be useful for the future. Without a player like Zappa, the interpreters were these: I'm happy for Palomino, he played a quality match».

In closing, Nicola talks about the meeting with Claudio Ranieri: «I still have to earn his business card, maybe one day I'll receive it», he jokes, speaking about the sketch at the end of Athletic Club-Roma . «There was a sincere greeting, he's a professional I appreciate. Then we had already spoken during the course of the work, especially at the beginning when he was thinking of quitting, and we had exchanged some impressions. I think he saw an organised Cagliari that gave him a hard time, I hope that now in addition to his team he also cheers for us ».