Cagliari Vs AC Milan
Saturday 11th January 2020 – 14:00 Kick-Off
Italian Serie A
Pick: Both Teams to Score
Odds: 7/10
Bookmaker: Bet365
Italian Serie A Betting with 22Bet
(All betting odds displayed were correct at time of writing: 9th January 2020 at 21:50)
Preview: Not many would have predicted that Cagliari would occupy a European place at the midway stage of the 2019/20 Serie A season as former European champions AC Milan languish in mid-table, but that is the state of play when these two meet at Sardegna Arena on Saturday.
Cagliari Vs AC Milan Live Stats & Betting Odds
Cagliari Preview – How long before dismal run subsides?
Enough positive work was achieved in the first half of the season that Cagliari (6th – W8 D5 L5, GF33 GA27) are able to withstand a slump in results similar to what they are enduring now. The Serie A table speaks for itself as despite only managing to win one of their past six encounters (a dramatic 4-3 home victory against Sampdoria in which they came from 3-1 down to secure victory in stoppage time), the club are still overachieving in sixth-place and remain on course to qualify for Europe.
However, this team can ill-afford many more performances like the one in Turin versus Juventus last time out, losing 4-0 in what was easily their heaviest loss of the season considering all four previous losses were by single goal margins. That made it three defeats in as many league games for I Rossoblu, who had previously suffered back-to-back 2-1 scorelines at the hands of Lazio and Udinese, with three out of the four goals they conceded in those contests coming inside the final five minutes.
A return home to Sardinia is a welcome relief then, where only Lazio have beaten them since September (W5 D1). Prior to that loss Cagliari were enjoying an impressive winning streak of four on home soil, scoring fourteen times in the process. Meanwhile just four teams have registered more goals over the course of the season than their 33 from 18 games, failing to score only twice. A miserly sum of three clean sheets also underpins their fragility in defence, having failed to shut out their previous seven opponents.
AC Milan Preview – Can Zlatan solve scoring woes?
Not even the return of a former fan favourite could successfully galvanize a group of players that seem locked in a perpetual state of mediocrity. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was introduced at the half-time interval of their contest with Sampdoria at the San Siro last Monday but was unable to make a telling impact on proceedings, marking his return to a club he debuted for some seven years earlier by featuring in a goalless draw for AC Milan (12th – W6 D4 L8, GF16 GA24). Extending the team’s barren run without a Serie A victory to three (D2 L1).
Fortunately for the imperious Swede he won’t need to wait long for another opportunity to strut his stuff, and rarely does he require many of them to make his presence felt. So this could be a potential catalyst moment for AC Milan particularly with them facing a favourable opponent. Not only are Cagliari enduring a wretched sequence of their own but the past two seasons have belonged to the Rossoneri, winning three of the previous four league meetings (W3 D1).
Last season’s trip to Sardinia did end in a share of the spoils although a repeat could be out of the question based on the fact they are the only team in Serie A still to draw an away fixture this season (W4 L5). The most recent of those a 5-0 mauling in Bergamo against a rampant Atalanta, bringing to an end their winning away streak after prior successes at Parma (0-1) and Bologna (2-3). Their record away to the top-six is dreadful as well, losing all three such encounters (one being Atalanta while the others were against Juventus, 1-0, and Roma, 2-1).
Cagliari Vs AC Milan – Key Facts:
- It is now three successive Serie A defeats for Cagliari, winning only one of their last six league games (W1 D2 L3) but were victorious in four of the last five as hosts.
- AC Milan remain the only side in Serie A this season still to draw an away fixture (W4 L5).
- Three of the past four Serie A encounters were won by AC Milan, who have only ever been beaten twice by Cagliari in the previous 32 league meetings.
Betting Summary
A lot of conflicting statistics for this encounter between sixth-placed Cagliari (21/10 Betfair) and mid-table AC Milan (13/10 Boylesports). The former boast a fabulous home record in 2019/20 and have only tasted defeat once there since the start of September, winning four in a row prior to a recent loss there against Lazio. However, head-to-head suggests AC Milan, who have more losses on their travels this season than victories, cannot be dismissed due to prevailing in three of the previous four meetings across the past two campaigns.
The one consistent aspect about these two sides is goals, though. Each of the previous six Serie A meetings in Sardinia has seen goals at both ends of the pitch, which has also been a theme throughout the season for Cagliari whose eighteen fixtures so far have returned goals for both teams 72 per cent of the time (78 per cent at home). AC Milan are hardly prolific and are without a goal in their past three matches, but Ibrahimovic seems likely to start on this occasion and he could be the inspirational figure they have long craved.
