So we have our 2nd away trip of the season on offer tomorrow. The match is taking place at the Sardinian side's temporary home, the Is Arena, which has not passed safety codes and so FIGC will not allow fans to attend the game, meaning it will be played behind close doors. Cagliari themselves have said that the stadium is fully ready to seat fans and are reported to have invited their season ticket owners as well as the travelling Roma support seats in the stadium. Doing so will incur a fine upon the Isolani, but they don't really seem too bothered by that however. One thing's for sure though, we might actually have a good chance at coming away with a result here since our record at the Sant'Elia is not good.

Starting XI

We've got a spate of injuries to contend with at the moment as Daniele De Rossi, Michael Bradley, Dodo, Francesco Totti and Pablo Osvaldo are all expected to miss this match with various injuries. I'm not ready to call this an injury crisis yet, but with 3 of our best players out, it's beginning to take on the look of one.

Maarten Stekelenburg will be in goal while the starting backline from our past 3 games will remain unchanged. Miralem Pjanic has been tapped to deputize for Totti and De Rossi as captain for this match, a surprising move from Zeman considering the presence of longer serving players such as Perrotta and Taddei, but it speaks to how much Zeman rates him though. Joining him in midfield is Panagiotis Tachtsidis and Alessandro Florenzi, who has been fantastic so far this season. Up front, the absence of Totti and Osvaldo means we'll be seeing Mattia Destro flanked by Erik Lamela and Nico Lopez to form one of the youngest attack lines in Serie A. Here we go:



The Opposition

The Coach - Massimo Ficcadenti



Massimo Ficcadenti is definitely playing for his job tomorrow. The Fermo-born tactician has not been able to get the team playing the way they've been known to play last season, especially at home. Massimo Cellino has already sacked Ficcadenti once for a run of poor results and should that continue, the former Cesena coach could find himself out of work again, but rumors have it that the Seahorses are interested in bringing him back to Romagna.

The Captain - Daniele Conti



The son of Bruno is notorious for his timely goals against us over the years. An energetic and charismatic midfielder with a fierce long-range shot, Conte has been the undisputed best midfielder for Cagliari for over a decade. He's currently in a run of rather poor form though so we need to take advantage of that and overrun him. If he's allowed time on the ball and grows in confidence, we could see a repeat of last weekend.

The Dangerman - Marco Sau



Little is known about the 24-year old who scored his debut goal last weekend, but he impressed in that victory with some great movement and showed a lot of desire to be Cagliari's go-to guy. With Mauricio Pinilla shooting blanks at the moment, it has fallen to Sau and Colombian Victor Ibarbo to provide the firepower for the Isolani and Sau's unpredictability coupled with the power and pace of Ibarbo should provide a stern test for the defense.

Form, Tactics & Match Objectives

We have lost our last 6 matches away to Cagliari. It's a terrible record honestly. The last 2 matches in Sardinia ended in 4-2 and 5-1 wins for the home side respectively. Playing behind closed doors should've evened the chances, but with key players missing, this should buoy Cagliari.

Cagliari, like most provincial sides coming up against one of the bigger sides in this league, is going to play a counterattacking game. They will absorb our attacks and possession and will hope not to concede in the first 30 minutes of the match. After our high-pressuring game begins to peter out, they will slowly begin retaining more and more possession, getting chances in the process. This is what we must avoid. If we're going to press them then we need to do it for much longer than 30 minutes.

Zeman's tactics dictate that our best defense is attack. The most important part of this is scoring goals. Despite our talent in that 3rd of the pitch, we need to be scoring more if we're to stay true to these tactics. They are not meant for 2 and 3 goal games. A proven finisher like Destro will need to be focused in order to take the chances he'll no doubt get. We do that enough times and we won't have to worry about how much we can concede though with Cagliari, we can score 5 and I still don't think it would be enough to ensure a win here.

Given our poor record, injury woes and the situation with Cag's stadium, I can see a scoring draw here at best, another thumping at worse.

2-2 is what I'm going with though.

CAGLIARI v ROMA CALLED OFF

MILAN - The match between Cagliari-Roma, scheduled for 15.00 today has been called off after a meeting called by Cagliari's city council following the club's decision to allow fans into the satdium despite a ban.

The Sardinian side will face Milan on Wednesday at 20.45.

Yeah just reading that now.

Damn. At least there is a few other good games on. This Cagliari fiasco with there arena seems very strange. Hopefully they get it all sorted out, seems crazy on that presidents part to invite all the fans to an unsafe stadium.

I was hoping Roma would give them a good run, ahead of Wednesdays' game.

Roma demand 3-0 win at Cagliari
By Football Italia staff

Roma have announced an appeal to be awarded the Cagliari win after Massimo Cellino invited fans to attend a closed doors game. “It’s his fault.”

The Is Arenas failed security checks and was ordered to play behind closed doors, but Cagliari President Cellino publicly urged season ticket holders to come to the stadium anyway.

This prompted fears over public safety, so a meeting with police deep into the night saw the local authorities call off the game. Now it might not be rescheduled, as Roma are appealing to be awarded the 3-0 victory.

“We are astounded by the situation and lodging an appeal is not a choice, but rather our duty,” explained Giallorossi director general Franco Baldini.

“We are the damaged party in this affair. We had organised everything for this match, including flights and hotels.

“Cellino’s statement provoked inevitable consequences and the Prefecture told me the news overnight.

“This match did not go ahead because of Cellino’s behaviour, so the responsibility is clear. A 3-0 defeat for Cagliari is the direct consequence of that.

“You cannot just adopt the rules when they suit you. It was embarrassing for us to explain what had happened to the squad, especially our young foreign players… They’d never heard anything like it.

“Roma do not just need to look after their own interests and those of their fans, but also protect the sacrosanct right to respect rules in competitions. They cannot be bent to suit subjective needs.”

Lazio lost today

Secret Agent Boriello

Roma handed 3-0 win at Cagliari

By Football Italia staff






Roma have been awarded a 3-0 win at Cagliari after Sunday’s game was postponed because of safety concerns.

The match was set to take place at the Is Arenas in Sardinia, but behind closed doors as the stadium had yet to receive its safety certificates.

However, the club released a statement on their website, from President Massimo Cellino, who invited season ticket holders to attend the game anyway.

That stance resulted in the Cagliari Prefecture and local police to call off the encounter due to public order concerns.

Given that the cancelation was as a result of Cagliari’s actions, Roma’s appeal to be awarded a 3-0 win has been granted.

Cagliari also run the risk of further punishments – from being forced to play even more games behind closed doors or a points penalty.






Great win


Thanks Cellino LMAO


Conti

Some facepalm-worthy posts on lol.com about this.

Apparently those morons thought we bought this win

Nice, first and probably last clean sheet this season.

I'd take free 3 points and run with it if my team had the chance. What an idiot this guy Cellino. Should've just played behind closed doors.

Tuesday September 25 2012

Why reward Roma?

Cagliari were right to be punished for Sunday’s farce, but, asks Antonio Labbate, should Roma really have been awarded a 3-0 win?

There have been some questionable decisions made by the footballing authorities on the peninsula in recent years. Too many, in all honesty. Yet the latest, which saw Roma awarded a 3-0 victory at Cagliari 24 hours after the game was called off, was one of the more debatable.

Cagliari deserve to be punished for the ridiculous actions of their President Massimo Cellino. Of that there is no doubt. To invite fans to come and watch a game at a stadium which does not yet have the necessary safety certificates is just crazy, even by Italian football’s standards.

What is up for debate is whether Roma should have been awarded the three points. Sure, Cagliari were in violation of a number of articles within the rule book, but each case should be judged on its own unique circumstances. And this was unquestionably unique. The encounter had not kicked off, the behaviour of fans didn’t cause its abandonment and Cagliari’s players, for all intents and purposes, were ready to do battle.

What really needs to be assessed with regard to the resulting fictional away win is what harm was actually done to Roma? And is the awarding of three points just compensation? “We are the damaged party in this affair,” stated Roma director general Franco Baldini. “We had organised everything for this match, including flights and hotels.

“Roma do not just need to look after their own interests and those of their fans, but also protect the sacrosanct right to respect rules in competitions. They cannot be bent to suit subjective needs.”

Baldini is clearly correct in terms of the latter, but, one could argue, the only real damage caused to them at the weekend was one of inconvenience and financial cost. Let us not forget, after all, that Roma booked into their Sardinian lodge without the injured trio of Francesco Totti, Pablo Daniel Osvaldo and Daniele De Rossi. Not bad footballing circumstances at all to be gifted a victory.

In giving Roma a 3-0 win, the authorities run the risk of falsifying a championship. For the sake of argument, how do you think other clubs would react if Roma won the Scudetto, qualified for the Champions League, Europa League or survived relegation by a margin of less than three points? It would be Calcio’s World War XXIV.

What arguably would have been a fairer solution for this sorry mess would be to dock Cagliari three points, get the Sardinian outfit to cover the capital club’s costs and reschedule the game. That way, let’s allow the best team on the day to win rather than the club with the least provocative President.

http://www.football-italia.net/25425/why-reward-roma

Any thoughts on this article? I think its a terribly biased article from a Roma hater.

If Cagliari and the rest of Serie A want to blame someone for this then all they have to do is look at Cellino.It's thanks to him that the game didn't go ahead.

I mean does this stadium in it's current state look safe for fans ?



Cellino

Just a stellar preview as usual. It pains me to see this go unappreciated as these previews MUST also make its appearances in the general section. Many would be willing to discuss it.

As for the match. Wonderful game by Roma. Taddei and Piris was unstoppable from the back with Burdisso key in his sweeper role to thwart the Sardinian attack. Great to see a brace from Lopez and a clinical header from Destro. Defence looks in top shape while the midfield dominated. 3-0 is a justified score. Have to say Cellino was the Flop of the match as he was just atrocious.

Good luck against the tactically astute side Samp lead by Ciro Ferrara. Luck will be needed.

There have been rumors circulating that we might have to play this game in order not to falsify the season. I wouldn't want to get caught at the end of the season with this biting us in the backside, but the rules state pretty clearly that this game should end 3-0. This should be dealt with by the end of the week.