4: 1 reversal! Cagliari beat ascoli at home, which is the fourth victory led by Ranieri. With this game, Ranieri ended the embarrassment of four consecutive draws. In addition, this score of 4: 1 is the biggest victory of Cagliari this season.
This season, the lack of offensive firepower has always been Cagliari’s biggest problem. In the previous 28 games, Cagliari scored only 30 goals, basically averaging 1 goal per game. Without enough fire support, it is too difficult for Cagliari to win! In the 18th round of the season, the former head coach Lee vilani was fired by the team because of his poor record. He led the team to play 18 league games and 2 cup games for more than five months, with a record of 6 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses, with a winning percentage of only 30%!
After Cagliari fired the head coach, he was very cautious in selecting the coach. After strict screening, he sent an invitation to Ranieri, who was at home, and finally the coach agreed to the invitation. In fact, it is not the first time for the two sides to cooperate. Ranieri coached Cagliari more than 30 years ago and took Cagliari to achieve the feat of upgrading from Serie C to Serie A within two years.
The contract between the two parties began on January 1, 2003 and was signed for two and a half years. However, after Ranieri took over Cagliari, he quickly recruited benetti, the assistant coach of the royal family. After more than 10 years of cooperation, they once created the myth of leicester city winning the championship in the Premier League!
The coach spent many years of experience in mending pots, giving priority to solving the morale problem, and then slightly adjusting the main lineup to maintain combat effectiveness as much as possible. And focus on defense, because there is still a chance to win if you lose less goals, at least you won’t lose. In fact, things developed as expected. Ranieri quickly solved the morale problem, first turning the tide with 2 wins and 1 draw, and scored 4 goals in 3 games, averaging 1.3 goals per game.
After entering February, Cagliari’s lack of firepower became more and more prominent, which has also been bothering Ranieri. On February 4, he lost the game against Modena because of the referee’s dispute. This was Ranieri’s first defeat and the only defeat at present. Subsequently, the defensive system created by Ranieri played a role, offsetting the side effects of insufficient firepower. From the 24th round to the 28th round, Cagliari scored 3 goals and lost 2 goals in 5 games. Although there are not many victories, we will not lose!
In this round of home game against ascoli, the team did not perform well in the first half. In the 19th minute, the opponent took the lead in breaking the deadlock, and in the 36th minute, Cagliari winger Lu Wenbo left the field injured, and Ranieri was forced to make the first substitution. Although there were continuous changes, fortunately, the team did not let the score open.
As soon as the second half started, the magical scene began. Ranieri made substitutions and even changed two people. After Paolo Archie and Pralech joined in the winter, Cagliari’s offensive effect came out quickly. In the 53rd minute, Mancosu made a penalty, and Guoqiang’s penalty was shot and scored, and the score became 1: 1! In the 61st minute, Lapadula reciprocated and assisted Mancosu to overtake the score 2-1! In the 81st minute, Paul Archie, who came off the bench, assisted Lapadula to the next city, 3-1! In the final stage, Zapa caught the opponent and it was a complete kill game, 4: 1!
It’s worth mentioning that four goals in the first half is an unprecedented performance of the team in recent years. The last time I scored four goals in the first half was in the 2014/15 season, which was on September 28th, 2014, when Cagliari beat Inter 4-1 away, and all four goals were scored in the first half. Now it’s been nine years! I didn’t expect Ranieri to open a long-lost goal record in this game!