Serie A

Football Italia

·5 May 2024

Serie A | Cagliari 1-1 Lecce: Sardinians under siege

Lecce finally wore down 10-man Cagliari with Nikola Krstovic cancelling out the Yerry Mina opener in this potentially decisive relegation dogfight.

The Sardinians now risk being sucked back into the danger zone after three points from four rounds, but the Salentini are almost safe. Nicolas Viola, Leonardo Pavoletti, Jakub Jankto and Marco Mancosu missed out, but Yerry Mina and Alberto Dossena returned. The visitors were without Lameck Banda, Mohamed Kaba and Kastriot Dermaku, but Ylber Ramadani was back.

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Gianluca Lapadula’s acrobatic overhead kick on a Zito Luvumbo cross was on target, but straight at the goalkeeper, while Cagliari thought they had taken the lead on 17 minutes. Alessandro Deiola won it back off Marin Pongracic and his strike from the edge of the area was deflected into the net, but VAR spotted he touched it with his hand during the challenge.

The Sardinians did break the deadlock when a corner was only cleared as far as Gianluca Gaetano, whose wayward shot turned into an accidental assist for Mina to side-foot home from close range. The Colombian veteran was surrounded by red shirts, but none of them reacted quickly enough.

Remy Oudin’s free kick was deflected over by Deiola, risking an own goal, but the game changed just before half-time when Gaetano went in studs-up on Ramadani’s ankle. He was initially booked, but the decision was changed to a red card following a VAR On-Field Review, as the leg was raised.

The tension escalated in the stadium, as a member of Claudio Ranieri’s staff was also sent off for dissent.

The second half was one-way traffic as Cagliari clammed up in defence, Oudin’s volley flashing across the face of goal to skim the far post and Simone Scuffet slapping a Santiago Pierotti header out from under the bar.

Their siege finally paid off when Pontus Almqvist got down the right and flashed a ball across the face of goal for Krstovic to anticipate Nahitan Nandez and tap in at the back post.

It was not over, because Lecce poured forward and hit the upright twice in three minutes with Federico Baschirotto and Nicola Sansone headers, while Scuffet made a double save on the Alexis Blin scorcher and Valentin Gendrey’s follow-up.

Mina 26 (C), Krstovic 84 (L)

Sent off: Gaetano 43 (C)