Cagliari vs Fiorentina

Unipol Domus is the venue as Cagliari and Fiorentina lock horns in an exciting Serie A season finale.

Despite heading into the last round of the 2023/24 Serie A season only three points clear of the bottom three, Cagliari can’t suffer relegation as closest competitors Frosinone and Udinese go head-to-head on Sunday. Claudio Ranieri’s side snapped a five-game winless league run (D3, L2) with a season-defining 2-0 win at second-from-bottom Sassuolo last weekend and could now finish as high as 13th with another triumph here. It would be Cagliari’s best final placing in Serie A since 2016/17, but to make that happen, they must defy an underwhelming run of six straight league meetings with Fiorentina without winning (D3, L3). Ominously for the Sardinians, they failed to get on the scoresheet in five of those six encounters, including a 3-0 defeat in this season’s reverse fixture.

In stark contrast to this trend, Fiorentina last won in Sardinia in December 2017, going winless on their four most recent visits (D2, L2) while only keeping one clean sheet. If the visitors’ away form since the start of April is anything to go by, Cagliari’s bid to uphold their impressive H2H home record is safe and sound. Indeed, Vincenzo Italiano’s men have only won once on their last six competitive travels (D2, L3), failing to score more than once on each occasion. Arresting that disappointing run with a win at Unipol Domus would see La Viola secure an eight-place finish and a European spot next season. However, with the Europa Conference League final against Olympiacos waiting in the wings, Italiano could rest numerous first-team stars to boost his side’s chances in Athens.