AS Roma 4-2 Cagliari result, stats and report

Roma 4-2 Cagliari. Write it down. Roma came out on top, and if you watched this match you'll have opinions. I've got a few myself.

The Opening: Cagliari Make Their Mark Early

Roma had 61 per cent of the ball by full time. They had 123 attacks to Cagliari's 78. On paper, this looks comfortable. In practice, it was anything but.

The thing is, Cagliari came here with a plan and they executed the early part of it. A VAR decision involving Michel Adopo in the seventh minute set the tone. Then M'Bala Nzola scored from the penalty spot in the tenth minute to give Cagliari the lead. Away from home. Against Roma. That takes desire. I'll give them that.

Roma needed a response and they got one. Emanuele Lulli headed Roma level in the fifteenth minute, with Nahuel Molina supplying the assist. Good basics. Find your man in the box, deliver the ball, let him do the work. Niccolò Pisilli then put Roma ahead in the twenty-first minute with a right-foot finish, assisted by Lulli. Two goals in six minutes. Roma looked like they'd taken control.

The First Half: Roma's Dominance Feels Fragile

Roma went into half-time 2-1 up. That should be enough of a platform. And yet it didn't feel settled. Cagliari had shown they could score. They had shown they would compete. Those two things alone should put any defence on edge.

Nahuel Molina was taken off at half-time, replaced by Wesley. That substitution shaped what followed. When you take off a player who has just assisted a goal, you better be sure about your reasoning. Rotation policies and overthinking simple problems are where managers lose games they should win. I'm not saying that's what happened here. I'm saying it's worth watching.

The Second Half: Cagliari Stay in It, Roma Need Their Bench

The second half told you everything you need to know about attitude. Both teams made changes. Roma brought on Donyell Malen and Rodrigo Mora in the fifty-sixth minute. Cagliari made their own alterations. The match stayed open.

Cagliari pulled it back to 2-2 when Daniel Maldini scored for Cagliari in the eighty-first minute with a left-foot shot, assisted by Adam Obert. Wait. Let me be clear on that. Daniel Maldini came on as a substitute for Cagliari in the seventy-sixth minute. He was on the pitch for five minutes and he scored. That is accountability in reverse. A player comes off the bench and immediately affects the game. That is what you want from your substitutes.

Roma were level. 2-2. At home. In the eighty-first minute. Against a Cagliari side who had lost to Bologna and been hammered 4-0 by Monza in their previous two Serie A matches. That is unacceptable from Roma's perspective. You cannot let a team in that form drag you back into a match on your own ground.

The Closing Ten: Roma Find Their Quality

Listen, this is where Roma showed something. When it would have been easy to panic, they kept competing. Rodrigo Mora, another substitute, headed Roma back in front in the eighty-fifth minute. Daniele Ghilardi supplied the assist. A substitute setting up a substitute. The bench won this match for Roma.

Then Donyell Malen, who had come on in the fifty-sixth minute, wrapped it up with a right-foot finish in the eighty-seventh minute. Rodrigo Mora got the assist. Two players who started on the bench combined to score two goals in the final ten minutes. That is the kind of depth that wins you things. If you use it correctly.

The final whistle came. Roma 4-2 Cagliari. Roma had 20 shots to Cagliari's 19. Both sides had 8 shots on target. This was not a dominant display. This was a scrappy, open, occasionally chaotic match that Roma had enough quality to win.

What the Numbers Tell You

Roma's defence conceded two goals at home to a side without a clean sheet in four of their last five Serie A matches. Cagliari had kept clean sheets in just one of those five. That tells you Roma were sloppy defensively. Their save count of four confirms the goalkeeper was busy.

Roma had 8 big chances created, compared to Cagliari's 4. Roma missed 4 of those big chances. That number bothers me. When you create big chances, you finish them. Missing 4 in a match you eventually win by two goals means you were fortunate the scoreline looked as comfortable as it did.

Cagliari's passing accuracy was 87 per cent to Roma's 79 per cent. Cagliari completed 507 successful passes to Roma's 296. The away side moved the ball better for long stretches of this match. They competed. They had standards. The problem is they came here after shipping 6 goals in two matches and their defensive record showed. They gave Roma too much space at the back when it mattered.

The Verdict

Roma win and they deserve credit for not folding when Cagliari made it 2-2 with nine minutes to play. That takes character. That takes desire. The substitutes, Mora and Malen, showed the attitude you need. They came on and they delivered.

The thing is, Roma should not have been in that position in the first place. You are at home. You lead 2-1 at half-time. You have more attacks, more possession, more dangerous attacks. And yet Cagliari come back to level it. That is a defensive and concentration problem that needs addressing. Conceding a penalty in the tenth minute and then conceding again in the eighty-first minute tells you the standards at the back are not where they need to be.

Cagliari came here in poor form and gave Roma a proper game. That reflects poorly on Roma as much as it reflects well on Cagliari. The three points are what matter. But the manner of it will not satisfy anyone who holds this club to proper standards. It should not.

Roma win. The subs saved them. Sort out the defence. End of.