By Football Given the curiosities of the challenge between Cagliari and Empoli, valid for the fifth day of the Enilive 2024/25 Serie A Championship scheduled for tomorrow, Friday 20 September at 18:30 at the Unipol Domus in Cagliari.

PREVIOUS MATCHES, IN THE LATEST SARDINIAN CHALLENGES BALANCE REIGNS - Challenge number 36 tomorrow between Cagliari and Empoli with a balance, in the 35 total precedents played so far, of 17 Azzurri victories, 7 draws and 11 Sardinian successes. Speaking only of the matches played in Sardinia, 17, 8 victories for the home team, 5 draws and 4 Azzurri victories. The first confrontation dates back to the 1950/51 season, Serie C, with the Sardinians winning 1-0 thanks to Torriglia's goal. In the last matches, in the top division, three draws and one win each (3-2 Cagliari in 2017, with a brace from Farias and a goal from Sau making the goals from Zajc and Maccarone useless; Empoli won 2-0 in September 2021 with goals from Di Francesco and Stulac); the 0-0 draw on December 30th closes the picture.

AN ANEMIC CAGLIARI – Cagliari has so far had the worst attack in Serie A 2024/25 with only 1 goal scored in 4 matchdays, like Venezia and Lecce. Only one scorer – Piccoli – for the Sardinians, like Venezia, Lecce and Como.

CAGLIARI REST LITTLE – Cagliari is one of the 4 Serie A teams that – between one league game and another – in these first 5 matchdays, has rested the least, only 29 days, like Hellas Verona, Lecce and Juventus (the Bianconeri with their Champions League debut in between).

THE HISTORICAL “PILL”: EMPOLI 17 YEARS AGO TODAY… – On 20 September 2007, Empoli made their debut in the European cups, the second non-provincial capital team in Italian football, after Cesena in the 70s. The Tuscans won 2-1 at the “Castellani” against Zurich, with goals from Piccolo in the 44th minute, Antonini from a penalty in the 49th minute and Alphonse in the 74th minute.

EMPOLI HAS NOT STARTED UNDEFEATED IN THE FIRST 4 SERIE A GAMES SINCE 2007 – Empoli is still undefeated in the first 4 Serie A games, with 6 points to its name. The last precedent, in this sense, at home for the Azzurri dates back to 2006/07, 8 points in 4 games.

WITH REFEREE SOZZA THE AZZURRI WON NO VICTORIES – Simone Sozza from Seregno was the referee for Cagliari-Empoli. Five precedents with the Azzurri with two draws, Empoli-Livorno 1-1 in December 2019 and Empoli-Reggiana 0-0 in December 2020 and three defeats, 2-0 on the Ascoli pitch in May 2021, Empoli-Lazio 1-3 in August 2021 and Empoli-Sassuolo 3-4 last November; four matches against the Sardinians, with one win, one draw and two defeats.

THERE ARE FOUR EXES IN THE CHALLENGE – Alberto Grassi on one side, Sebastiano Luperto, Razvan Marin and Roberto Piccoli on the other; these are the exes of the challenge between Empoli and Cagliari. Starting from the only former Sardinian, Grassi wore the Cagliari jersey in the 2021/22 season, in Serie A, playing 31 games in total. Coming to the former Azzurri, Luperto arrived in Empoli for the first time in the summer of 2017, winning the B championship; he returned in 2021, remaining three and achieving three salvations: for him in total 125 appearances and 5 goals. Two seasons in Empoli for Marin, in Azzurri from 2022 to 2024, playing 65 games with 2 goals. Finally Piccoli, in the blues from January to August 2023, with 14 total appearances and 2 goals.

EX MATCH FOR MISTER DAVIDE NICOLA – Davide Nicola will meet Empoli again for the first time after last season. The current Cagliari coach arrived in Empoli in January, leading the blues to safety on the last day against Roma (23 points from 6 wins, 5 draws and 7 defeats in 18 official benches).

NICOLA AHEAD 3-2 IN 5 CHALLENGES ALL PLAYED AT HOME BY THE CURRENT COACH OF THE SARDINIANS – Between Davide Nicola and Roberto D’Aversa 5 technical clashes, all played so far at home-Nicola, with a score of 3 successes for the red and blue coach and 2 for the blue one, without draws.

NICOLA WITH A SLIGHT ADVANTAGE AGAINST EMPOLI AND HIS TEAMS ALWAYS SCORING – Davide Nicola, as a coach, against Empoli is at his ninth career challenge: the Sardinians coach with a slight advantage for 3 wins to 2, with 3 draws to close the balance. Nicola's teams always on target in the 720' taken into consideration, total of 15 goals scored. Davide Nicola obtained his only promotion to Serie A in the 2012/13 play-off final of Serie B against Empoli: it was 1-1 in the first leg at the "Castellani" and 1-0 in the return leg at the Ardenza.

ADVERSE BALANCE SHEET FOR D'AVERSA AGAINST THE SARDINIANS, BUT HIS TEAMS ALWAYS SCORING IN THE 9 MEETINGS – Roberto D'Aversa with a clear disadvantage in the 9 previous technical matches against Cagliari: only one of his wins, 2 draws and 6 Sardinian victories. However, D'Aversa's teams always scored in these 810', a total of 13 goals.

Injuries and Suspensions

Cagliari

16 M. Prati

Empoli

10 J. Fazzini

24 T. Ebuehi

1 S. Perisan

27 S. Zurkowski

16 L. Belardinelli

15 S. Sazonov