Cagliari’s ‘Golden Point’ Means Inter Must Beat Milan To Win Serie A

It was a season that began with a nine-game winless run for newly-promoted Cagliari. On Match Day 10, losing 0-3 at home to Frosinone with just 18 minutes remaining, it appeared as though Claudio Ranieri’s time was most likely up as a professional coach. Two months prior, the 72-year-old told La Repubblica that Cagliari would be his last club role. With just two league points since their return to Serie A, the groans from the Cagliari-faithful were getting louder.

But 18 minutes is a long time in football, enough to pull off Serie A’s greatest-ever comeback. Ranieri’s first substitute Gaetano Oristanio scored in the 72nd minute. Antoine Makoumbou then cut the deficit to 2-3. But the best was saved for last, with $1 million-rated striker Leonardo Pavoletti getting the equaliser in the 94th, the winner in the 96th, and a defensive clearance off the line in the 99th. For the first time in 2023-24, Cagliari climbed off the bottom of the standings.

No Italian first-division side had ever recovered to win from three goals down after the 70th minute.

“I always say give everything until the end of the game. I hope that this victory will be a milestone,” Ranieri said after beating Frosinone.

Milestones are what Ranieri will be remembered for when he retires. Winning the Premier League with minnows Leicester City might be the defining moment of a career that has spanned 37 years, but for Calcio purists, it’s Ranieri’s humility, adaptability and perseverance that are his biggest strengths.

Those qualities were again on show in last night’s 2-2 draw at Inter Milan. Once more, Cagliari had fallen behind in the match, this time to the runaway leaders who are coached by Simone Inzaghi, recently nominated for Best FIFA Coach alongside Luciano Spalletti and eventual winner Pep Guardiola - the same title Ranieri was awarded in 2016. Again, Ranieri’s substitutions, Gianluca Lapadula and Nicolas Viola, combined to force home the equaliser in the 83rd minute, with the Isolani denied a late winner by the best goalie in the league, Yann Sommer.

“This point is worth its weight in gold, we had Atalanta and Inter one after the other, there was the risk of picking up zero points,” Ranieri said.

Last week, Atalanta thrashed Liverpool in the UEFA Europa League, a competition that Cagliari last qualified for thirty years ago when Dely Valdes’ side were knocked out in the semi-finals by Dennis Bergkamp’s Inter. That result for La Dea dominated the headlines around Europe, and rightly so.

But a few days earlier, Cagliari had beaten Gianpiero Gasperini's men, coming back from a goal down to pinch a 2-1 win and three priceless points to climb further away from the relegation zone. Viola’s 88th-minute header sparked the kind of celebration that could rumble a grandstand made of scaffolding - welcome to Cagliari’s Sardegna Arena.

The week before, second-half sub Ibrahim Sulemana was the hero, strengthening the Casteddu’s survival bid with a 20-yard drive with his first touch. That goal was crucial in keeping Hellas Verona, Sulemana’s former club, at arm's length.

With a total squad value of $83 million, roughly two-thirds of what Inter's Lautaro Martinez is worth, Cagliari triumphed over fourth-placed Bologna and drew with reigning champions Napoli. They’re now undefeated in seven of the past eight in Serie A, the kind of form you want heading into the next match with Juventus. Despite Juve’s mediocre form, it’s not getting any easier for Ranieri, whose side spends less than a quarter of the Bianconeri on wages (as well as Inter) and with Genoa, Lecce, Milan, Sassuolo and Fiorentina still to come before the campaign ends.

Known for his loyalty and relentless ambition, Ranieri has coached at both ends of the spectrum with varying degrees of success. This Cagliari side resembles the Cagliari he was given back in the late eighties, where he hoisted them from the lower divisions in successive seasons. They were both filled with unearthed diamonds or journeymen who were making their way from club to club - see Viola and Eldor Shomurodov who have been passed around three times in as many years.

This is the way it’s been for the Sardinians since the Gigi Riva glory days of the 1970s, making do with footballers who cost next to nothing, who understand the job at hand - survival - and who leave their ego at the dressing room door.

“Viola is the one who gets along well with his teammates”, Ranieri explained after the draw with Inter. “He's a highly intelligent player who knows I'll call him when I need him. He doesn't make strange faces when he's on the bench and I think this is the strength of the group."

With Milan failing to win against Sassuolo, Inter, with three points against Cagliari, could have clinched their much talked about 20th Scudetto by drawing next week’s Derby della Madonnina at the San Siro. Instead, with Viola’s equaliser, Inter must now defeat Milan to lift the 2023-24 Serie A title in the faces of their biggest rivals. We can thank Cagliari for making it a better spectacle.

Next week, Inter’s scripted glory will dwarf Cagliari’s modest objective, getting a positive result against the Bianconeri to keep the engine chugging along.

The relegation fight is far from over for eight top-flight teams. While every courageous story of survival is made up of small battles, it’s the rare ‘golden point’ earned on away days at the big clubs that often keep clubs like Cagliari in paradiso.