Both teams had managed to drag themselves out of the bottom three, but only by one point, so this was a huge head-to-head for safety. The Sardinian injury list remained extensive, including Andrea Petagna, Leonardo Pavoletti and Marco Mancosu, but Zito Luvumbo, Eldor Shomurodov, Gianluca Gaetano and Yerry Mina returned. Hellas coach Marco Baroni sat out a touchline ban with Reda Belahyane and Elayis Tavsan out.
The Sardinians started aggressively, Shomurodov unable to get the tap-in on a pull-back from the by-line, but it was Verona who took the lead.
It was a spectacular finish, as Tijjani Noslin’s cross from the right found Federico Bonazzoli for an acrobatic aerial back-heel flick that bounced right in front of Simone Scuffet.
Darko Lazovic came off the bench at half-time and had the ball in the back of the net five minutes later, but it did not count as he was offside when meeting the Ondrej Duda assist.
Luvumbo had penalty appeals rejected for a rather obvious Jackson Tchatchoua shirt tug, but it was end to end, first Tommaso Augello’s strike charged down on a corner, then Consigli rushing out to deny Lazovic on the counter.
Cagliari equalised when substitute Ibrahima Sulemana was ready to fire into the near bottom corner from the edge of the box after the Nicolas Viola cross was not cleared effectively.
SOURCE – Serie A | Cagliari 1-1 Verona: Sulemana to the rescue (football-italia.net)
