10 men Cittadella hang on for a precious point against Cagliari

A hard fought match sees Cittadella hold on to settle for a point against Cagliari on Saturday afternoon.

Following Cittadella’s big win last weekend in Pisa, the Granata played at home for the first time in the new year, as they hosted 8th place Cagliari.

Edoardo Gorini made only two changes to the side that beat Pisa last weekend. Tommy Maistrello earned his first career start in Serie B, while left back Daniele Donnarumma filled in for the recently departed Tommaso Cassandro.

Both teams had decent looks in front of goal in the opening first half. Cittadella goalkeeper Elhan Kastrati proved his worth once again in a big showing, making 4 saves in the match and putting up a man of the match performance. After just 15 minutes into the match, the Albanian keeper was called into action to push aside a strong header from Alberto Dossena.

Fresh coming off scoring his first Serie B goal, Valerio Mastrantonio nearly made it two in two games, gliding all the way through the Sardinian defense, only to pull the shot just wide of the post.

Though the draw was the positive headliner, Cittadella will go into next weekend’s clash against Venezia without three players that started today: Mastrantonio, Simone Branca, and Alessandro Salvi. All three of them received yellow cards, and all of them had warnings before the match.

However, Salvi might have another match suspension that he’ll have to face. In the 53rd minute, the veteran right back left his feet late and conceded a hard foul, thus sending him off for his second booking.

Cittadella now had to play the remainder of the second half down a man, and Gorini made sure to hold onto the golden point. As the match went on, Gorini shifted to a 4-4-1 formation, while bringing in Nicola Pavan, Gian Filippo Felicioli, Alessandro Mattioli, and Alessio Vita to help close out the match.

The Granata frustrated Claudio Ranieri’s side as the match concluded to a 0-0 draw: a point that could be crucial by the end of the season. While Cittadella may still be winless at home since September 10th, the draw is another positive result to start 2023.

“Today was a match lived on tackles, on second balls, but we knew it’d be like this,” Gorini said in his post match press conference. “The first half was discreet, but we could certainly have done better. This was the game and we had to interpret it like this. I’m happy both with the performance in Pisa and with today’s result.”

Cagliari’s boss Ranieri – who has coached many top clubs in Europe throughout his career – liked what he saw from his opposition during the match.

“I want to congratulate Cittadella,” Ranieri said post match. “A very organized team that’s coached well. Cittadella is always a very difficult place to play.”

“I’m surprised that Cittadella is in the lower parts of the standings, in my opinion they’re safe, they’re a team that impressed me.”

Gorini’s men now travel to Venezia next weekend for their first return to the Stadio Pierluigi Penzo since the playoff final two seasons ago.

Top Photo: Massimo Felicetti