Atalanta 1-2 Cagliari: Sardinians hand out Serie A's first Matchday 4 upset

Shot counts do not win football matches, and Cagliari made that point emphatically at the Gewiss Stadium. Gianluca Scamacca's equaliser was the only reward Atalanta got for a match in which they had 22 attempts to Cagliari's 5, as the visitors held on for a 1-2 win built on a well-taken opener and the season's first converted penalty in Serie A.

Goal timeline

Paul Mendy put Cagliari ahead from eight yards after an Adopo cross in the 19th minute, before Scamacca levelled things up just before the break, finishing off a quick free-kick move started by Scalvini. The game turned on the 61st minute, when Kolasinac was penalised for a handball and Daniel Maldini stepped up to convert — the first successful penalty of the 2026-27 Serie A season, in its fourth round.

A one-sided game on the scoreboard, not on the pitch

Cagliari had five shots all match and scored with two of them. Atalanta had 22 and only found the net once — a gap between chances created and chances taken that will worry Maurizio Sarri's side more than the possession share ever could.

Cagliari's slow-burning start

• Matchday 1: won 1-0 away at Parma
• Matchday 2: lost 0-1 at home to Inter
• Matchday 4: won 1-2 away at Atalanta

Cagliari had no fixture in Matchday 3, but the pattern before this trip to Bergamo was already promising for a side many expected to be fighting relegation again: a shutout win at Parma, a single-goal defeat to an in-form Inter, and now a win over a European regular. Atalanta, by contrast, arrived off the back of two straight wins over Sassuolo and Bologna before losing 1-2 at Roma last time out — this is now back-to-back defeats for a side that started the season with genuine top-four ambitions.

Cagliari kept winning, Atalanta kept losing

The win at the Gewiss Stadium was not a one-off for Cagliari. Eight days later they beat Udinese 1-0 away as well, a fourth victory in their opening five matches that also included the shutout at Parma and the win over Lecce sandwiched around the home defeat to Inter. That run has them 8th in Serie A on nine points from four matches, still with a game in hand on most of the sides above them after an earlier postponement.

Atalanta went the other way. The Cagliari defeat turned out to be the middle result of a three-match losing streak: after opening the campaign with wins over Sassuolo and Bologna, Maurizio Sarri's side lost 1-2 at Roma, then 1-2 at home to Cagliari, and were beaten 0-2 by Juventus in the fixture that followed. Three straight losses have dropped them to 11th on six points with a negative goal difference, a sharp comedown for a club that spent last season chasing a Champions League place.

What's next

Guriball's Serie A table had Atalanta 10th on six points from three matches and Cagliari 12th on three points from two going into this round. The result pulled Cagliari level with Atalanta on points at the time, from one fewer game played, while Atalanta's second straight defeat was the first sign of the slide that later became three losses in a row. Cagliari, by contrast, have kept building on the momentum from Bergamo, and now sit above Atalanta in the table they were level with straight after this final whistle.