Cagliari vs Bologna prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2024-10-28 17:30.
[p]Cagliari will be hoping their 2-0 loss away to Udinese at the weekend was a minor stumble in their recovery. The 30th-minute dismissal of Antoine Makoumbou offered an excuse for the defeat but head coach Davide Nicola was not disheartened, praising his players for “not losing heart” and “staying in the game until the end”. They should receive an immediate boost being back at home, where they picked up a breakthrough 3-2 victory over Torino in their last Serie A home outing. [/p]
[p]Nicola has faced no single club more often than his next opponent Bologna but success has been fleeting (W3, D4, L6). Yet the experience of coming from behind to craft a 2-1 win at home to Bologna last season in a campaign where they lost the majority of home games against top-half clubs, might suggest the tide is turning in this particular H2H. It would certainly be timely if so for Nicola, as he hopes to also end the team’s eight-game drought without a clean sheet in this competition. [/p]
[p]Bologna’s players had the weekend off after their home game against AC Milan was postponed due to the flooding in Emilia-Romagna, with all contingency measures such as moving the game to Empoli or Como falling through. After three successive Serie A draws and a pair of 2-0 Champions League defeats, Vincenzo Italiano’s men are now five competitive matches without victory. [/p]
[p]In stark contrast with his touchline opponent, Italiano boasts an unbeaten personal record against Cagliari (W4, D2) in charge of two different clubs. On the basis of Bologna’s current away ledger, in which they took points home from three opponents starting this round in the bottom half (W1, D2) and lost only to league leaders Napoli, extending that to seven games without defeat for the 46-year-old appears well within reach for this season’s draw experts (W1, D7, L3). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Good luck charm Roberto Piccoli has goals in three competitive matches this season and has won five of his last six such matches when finding the net. Bologna could use some more goals from Santiago Castro for the same reason, as his last nine goalscoring club appearances delivered a win or draw (W5, D4).[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Bologna drew nine of their last 11 Serie A games as pre-match favourites (W1, L1). [/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]