Empoli's excellent start to the season has secured them a safe position far from the relegation zone. Cagliari, on the other hand, have the opposite situation: in five matches this campaign, they have only kept a clean sheet once.
Setbacks against Lecce (0:1) and Napoli (0-4) further exposed Cagliari's defensive weaknesses, which have carried over from last season. Against Napoli, they had 1.75 xGA with 5 shots on target. Davide Nicola’s formation with three central defenders is not working: Yerry Mina, who has long been struggling, fails to keep up with opponents’ attacks, and in terms of expected goals conceded, Cagliari rank among the bottom six in Serie A.
In the current championship, Empoli have fallen short by 2.37 goals according to xG — mainly due to the defensive styles of Monza, Juventus (both 0:0), and AS Roma (2:1). Against strong Torino, they managed eight shots with only 34% possession, whereas on Friday, they can spend much more time in attack. Roberto D'Aversa relies on the attacking duo of talents Sebastiano Esposito and Lorenzo Colombo, with support from the bench in Pietro Pellegri and Tino Anjorin.
Empoli’s stability guarantees them a good performance in Sardinia. Against Cagliari, one of the standout sides of the Italian championship will manage to score at least one or two goals.
|
Davide Nicola
|
coach | ||
| Player | Matches | Goals | |
|
In squad
|
|||
|
Simone Scuffet
|
gk. | 4 | -6 |
|
Alen Sherri
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Giuseppe Ciocci
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Gabriele Zappa
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Paulo Azzi
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Sebastiano Luperto
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Tommaso Augello
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Yerry Mina
|
df. | 3 | 0 |
|
Adam Obert
|
df. | 1 | 0 |
|
Mateusz Wieteska
|
df. | 1 | 0 |
|
Alessandro Deiola
|
mf. | 4 | 0 |
|
Răzvan Marin
|
mf. | 4 | 0 |
|
Matteo Prati
|
mf. | 3 | 0 |
|
Michel Adopo
|
mf. | 3 | 0 |
|
Antoine Makoumbou
|
mf. | 1 | 0 |
|
Gianluca Gaetano
|
mf. | 1 | 0 |
|
Nadir Zortea
|
mf. | 1 | 0 |
|
Nicolas Viola
|
mf. | 1 | 0 |
|
Jakub Jankto
|
mf. | 0 | 0 |
|
Leonardo Pavoletti
|
fw. | 4 | 0 |
|
Roberto Piccoli
|
fw. | 4 | 1 |
|
Zito Luvumbo
|
fw. | 4 | 0 |
|
Gianluca Lapadula
|
fw. | 3 | 0 |
|
Kingstone Mutandwa
|
fw. | 1 | 0 |
|
Mattia Felici
|
fw. | 1 | 0 |
|
Roberto D'Aversa
|
coach | ||
| Player | Matches | Goals | |
|
In squad
|
|||
|
Devis Vasquez
|
gk. | 4 | -2 |
|
Federico Brancolini
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Jacopo Seghetti
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Samuele Perisan
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Valerio Biagini
|
gk. | 0 | 0 |
|
Ardian Ismajli
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Giuseppe Pezzella
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Mattia Viti
|
df. | 4 | 0 |
|
Liberato Cacace
|
df. | 3 | 0 |
|
Saba Goglichidze
|
df. | 2 | 0 |
|
Junior Sambia
|
df. | 0 | 0 |
|
Luca Marianucci
|
df. | 0 | 0 |
|
Mattia De Sciglio
|
df. | 0 | 0 |
|
Saba Sazonov
|
df. | 0 | 0 |
|
Tyronne Ebuehi
|
df. | 0 | 0 |
|
Liam Henderson
|
mf. | 4 | 0 |
|
Nicolas Haas
|
mf. | 4 | 0 |
|
Youssef Maleh
|
mf. | 4 | 0 |
|
Jacopo Fazzini
|
mf. | 3 | 0 |
|
Alberto Grassi
|
mf. | 2 | 0 |
|
Faustino Anjorin
|
mf. | 1 | 0 |
|
Andrea Sodero
|
mf. | 0 | 0 |
|
Luca Belardinelli
|
mf. | 0 | 0 |
|
Szymon Żurkowski
|
mf. | 0 | 0 |
|
Emmanuel Gyasi
|
fw. | 4 | 2 |
|
Lorenzo Colombo
|
fw. | 4 | 1 |
|
Sebastiano Esposito
|
fw. | 4 | 0 |
|
Emmanuel Ekong
|
fw. | 3 | 0 |
|
Ola Solbakken
|
fw. | 3 | 0 |
|
Pietro Pellegri
|
fw. | 2 | 0 |
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Serie A
