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The penultimate matchday of the 2019-20 Serie A campaign was concluded at the Sardegna Arena, with Cagliari recording a 2-0 victory over champions Juventus.
With the league title wrapped up, Maurizio Sarri took the opportunity to rotate his squad. Non-regulars like Gianluigi Buffon, Danielle Rugani, and Simone Muratore were all handed starts, although the starting lineup had established superstars like Gonzalo Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Barcelona-bound Miralem Pjanic.
The visitors expectedly started brightly and forced Alessio Cragno into some saves in the early minutes. However, the hosts broke the deadlock against the run of play when Luca Gagliano rounded up a brilliant team move with a left-footed strike in the box.
Cristiano Ronaldo put the ball in the back of the net soon after but was rightly pulled up for offside and Juventus continued to mount pressure for the rest of the half. They could not find the back of the net, and in similar circumstances to the first, Cagliari got a second goal from nothing.
They won the ball high up the field and quickly turned defence into attack. A long ball from midfield found Giovanne Simeone on the edge of the box. The Argentine then controlled perfectly to beat Leonardo Bonucci before firing past Gianluigi Buffon, although the Juventus keeper should arguably have done better.
Cagliari started on the front foot in the second half and fashioned two chances in quick succession, with Joao Pedro shooting narrowly wide, while Simone on the volley forced Buffon into a fine save.
As the game progressed, Walter Zenga's men became content to sit deeply and invite pressure from their more illustrious opponents. For all the possession enjoyed by Juventus, they could not find a way to break down the Cagliari defence and resorted to taking harmless shots from distance.
Up next for them would be the visit of AS Roma, while Cagliari would travel to the San Siro to take on the in-form AC Milan. Here, we take a look at five talking points from the fixture.
#5 Juventus end campaign with away-day blues
This visit to Cagliari was Juventus' final away game of the season and having lost to Udinese in their previous away game, the Bianconeri would have sought to end their campaign on a high.
The hosts, however, had other ideas and plotted a victory. It also means the Italian champions failed to get a win in any of their final four away fixtures, with a 3-3 draw with Sassuolo being the only point picked up from a possible 12.
#4 Cagliari get back to winning ways
Cagliari were one of the surprise teams at the start of the campaign, with a 13-game unbeaten run seeing them soar up the table and tipped as potential dark horses for European qualification. Things, however, unravelled at midway through the campaign to see them spiral down the table and the Sardinians continued their poor run of form post-lockdown.
They came into this fixture with a wretched record of going nine games without a victory and few, if any, would have given them a chance of getting anything from the perennial champions.
As it happened, the form book was thrown to the cleaners and Cagliari put up a gritty display to get back to winning ways at the expense of their more accomplished opponents. It also happened to be their first win over Juventus since 2009, which might be enough to keep Walter Zenga in his job at least for the near future.
#3 Juventus draw blanks for the first time since September
While Juventus might not be anybody's first choice for sheer attacking brilliance, the sheer difference in quality between Sarri's side and the rest of the league means that they almost always do enough to get a victory.
Cagliari's shutout meant the Turin giants have failed to score a goal in a Serie A fixture for the first time in 32 league matches, a run stretching back to a dour goalless draw with Fiorentina way back in September.
Although the hosts deserve credit for their dogged defending, with goalkeeper Cragno, in particular, distinguishing himself, they were undoubtedly helped by an out-of-sorts Juventus attack. They lacked their usual coordination and precision associated with them.
#2 Luca Gagliano marks home debut in style
After spending six years in the Cagliari academy, Luca Gagliano was given his first-team bow as an 84th-minute substitute in the 2-1 loss to Lazio just last week. This time around, he was on from the start against Juventus, with Zenga starting him at the heart of a three-man midfield.
It took just eight minutes for the 20-year-old to make his mark, as he was well-positioned and showed great composure to score with a first-time finish after a well-worked move. Right on the stroke of half-time, he turned provider, albeit more scruffily, with a punt upfield finding Simeone who made no mistake from the edge of the box.
That proved to be Gagliano's last contribution to the game, as he was substituted at half-time to protect the lead but with his display, fans of Cagliari would hope they have unearthed a new gem who would become a mainstay in the first-team.
#1 Ronaldo's quest for Serie A Golden Boot all but over
Ciro Immobile's late goal in Lazio's 2-0 victory over Brescia earlier in the evening took him four clear in the race for the Serie A Golden Boot and the outright leader in the European Golden Shoe standing.
Both individual titles were definitely in Cristiano Ronaldo's sights, but he was far from his best against Cagliari, with some speculative shots from distance all that he could muster in the game.
As the game progressed, he seemed resigned to his fate and with just one match to go, it looks highly unlikely that the Portuguese icon would win a Golden Boot in a third different league. That being said, knowing his antecedents, it would not exactly come as a surprise if he pulls this one out of the hat.
