Three posts, then a screamer: Romano settles the opener at the Tardini

Serie A came back on Saturday night and immediately handed Cagliari the kind of evening that usually ends 0-0. Three times they hit the frame of the goal. Then Alessandro Romano hit it properly.

His strike on 79 minutes came from outside the box, bent past Edoardo Corvi's hand and went in off the top corner. It was the only goal of the game, and on the run of play it was the least Cagliari deserved.

The woodwork got a workout

Paul Mendy's deflected effort clipped the far post. Alessandro Deiola glanced a header off the base of the stick from a Romano free kick. Jacopo Fazzini's shot was palmed onto the post by Corvi, who was the busiest man on the pitch long before he was beaten.

Parma were not entirely passive. Daniel Maldini curled one just past the far post early on, and Nesta Elphege got a free header in stoppage time that he could not keep down. But two shots on target across ninety-plus minutes is the number that tells the story.

Romano's celebration

When the goal went in, Romano held up a shirt belonging to teammate Yael Trepy, who has been in hospital after a swimming pool accident and had only recently left intensive care. It reframed the whole night for the away end. ❤️

Both squads arrived at the Tardini short-handed — injuries, suspensions and off-field problems on either side — and for long stretches it played like an early-season scrap between two teams still working out who they are. Fabio Pisacane's first league game in charge of Cagliari finished with three points; Carlos Cuesta's Parma start on zero.

Match facts

• 79' — Alessandro Romano (Cagliari), assisted by Michel Adopo
• 57' — Jacopo Fazzini (Cagliari) booked
• 65' — Zé Pedro (Cagliari) booked
• Referee: Daniele Perenzoni

The xG line is the honest one here: 1.00 against 0.89 is not domination, it is a game of small margins that swung on one player deciding to shoot from 25 yards. Cagliari kept the ball better and hit the target more often, and that was enough.

Diverging seasons

The opening-night defeat set the tone for two very different starts. Cagliari have won four of their five Serie A matches since that night at the Tardini, following it up with victories over Lecce, Atalanta and Udinese, the only blip a narrow home defeat to Inter. That run has Fabio Pisacane's side eighth in the table on nine points from four games — they are still owed a fixture from an earlier postponement, so the game in hand could push them higher yet.

Parma have gone the other way. A single point from the trip to Juventus and the home draw with Monza was followed by another defeat at Como before Carlos Cuesta's side finally found a win, 2-1 over Genoa on matchday 5. One win from five league games leaves them 15th on four points — only three clear of the relegation zone that starts at 18th, a tighter margin than the scoreline at the Tardini suggested it would be.

What's next

Cagliari go home to the Unipol Domus on Sunday 30 August to host Inter, who opened with a 4-1 win over Monza — a considerably harder afternoon than this one. Parma travel to Turin to face Juventus on the same weekend. Two of the toughest possible matchday 2 assignments, handed out immediately.