Cagliari vs Lecce prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2025-01-18 14:00.
[p]After narrowly avoiding relegation from Serie A last season, Cagliari supporters would have been hoping for their side to kick on this campaign, but so far, it’s proved to be a difficult campaign. Ahead of the round, the hosts sit in the bottom three after just one win across their last six league outings, albeit they come into this game unbeaten across their last two contests (W1, D1).[/p]
[p]In truth, it’s problems at both ends of the field which have plagued their campaign to date, not least as they’ve netted just 19 goals across their 20 league outings this term – one of the lower tallies in the division. That proved their downfall in the reverse H2H against Lecce earlier in the campaign, as Cagliari were beaten 1-0 and will now be looking to avoid succumbing to a pair of H2H defeats in the same season for the first time in Serie A.[/p]
[p]On paper, that looks unlikely though, as Lecce make the journey over to Sardinia unbeaten across their last six Serie A H2Hs (W2, D4). One more positive result would equal their longest ever unbeaten run against a single opponent in the competition (Siena between 2004 & 2009), and they look well-placed to manage that after beating Empoli 3-1 on their travels last time out. [/p]
[p]That crucially pushed the away side further away from the bottom three but with just a two-point cushion to 18th-placed Cagliari, they’ll arrive here knowing that avoiding defeat is of paramount importance. To achieve that, Lecce will need to find a way to improve upon their attacking output in particular, as no side have failed to score in more Serie A matches this season than the Giallorossi (ten). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Cagliari will be hoping that Gianluca Lapadula can get on the scoresheet here, as just one of his 27 goalscoring appearances for the club have ended in defeat (W18, D8). Nikola Krstović has struck seven goals across all competitions for Lecce this campaign, whilst he’s also netted in each of his last two H2Hs. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Each of the last two H2Hs have seen the opening goal scored in the 26th minute and a red card issued before half-time. [/p]
[p][i]Written by Nathan Evans[/i][/p]