Genoa-Cagliari

By: Jeremy | October 28th, 2008

After a much needed win at home against Chievo, Cagliari immediately hits the road for some midweek football against a confident Genoa side. With Cagliari trying to recover from its bad start so it does not lose sight of its relegation rivals, Genoa comes in after just playing Inter to a draw on the road and doing it with 10 men for some time. Both sides have to feel confident, but this is a game where the edge clearly has to go to Genoa.

While Cagliari has had some positive results in recent weeks, two of these positive results came at home and their wins were against Chievo and Torino, teams which they have to beat and where victories dont make others say “now watch out for Cagliari”. A win against Genoa on the road would make others take a second look and then focus their attention away from Cagliari, even if temporarily, when it comes to the relegation discussion.

Genoa sits on 13 points and has to feel with some continued good play that UEFA Cup Football is not out of the question for next year. What a result that would be after just being promoted back to Serie A last year. What is important for them is that they are perfect at home this year including wins over Milan, Napoli, Roma, and Siena. Games should get even easier at home for them and they have to expect to beat Cagliari in this game.

Midweek games always seem the best time for potential surprise results. Maybe one team has better fitness then the other or knocks a player has that might take a week to recover with no issues may prevent a player from playing well midweek. With little time to focus on the opponent, sometimes a team may play with a little less fluidity. This scenario might be Cagliaris best chance for points even with the momentum pretty strong on both sides.

With Juric suspended for Genoa and some other players missing due to injury, combined with the return of Conti for Cagliari, we have to feel we are in as good a position as we can be to face this team. The game will come down to the strikers, Milito for Genoa, and Acquafresca for Cagliari, as the one who plays the best will likely be on the winning side. I would expect both to hit the back of the net.

With Cagliaris play on the road pretty dismal combined with Genoas strong record at home, as much as I want to think Cagliari can use its new found confidence to gain points on Wednesday, I just cant see it. Not only does Genoa have the better team, but they are at home and results against Inter carry much more weight then results against Torino and Chievo. For Cagliari to be considered for points on the road in the future against top half of the table clubs, they have to start earning respect in games like this one. I dont think they are quite on that level yet but lets hope I am wrong as the team is certainly showing some improvement.

Prediction

Genoa 2-1 Cagliari