Opposition insight for Cagliari-Milan: Form, injuries, predicted XI and more

Cagliari are looking to make life difficult for AC Milan at the start of 2025, hosting the Rossoneri at Unipol Domus on Friday evening. 

Pisacane and his men are in good spirits after their 2-1 win away at Torino last week, now hoping to clinch another three points to create some more space between themselves and the relegation zone. Below, we take a look at everything you need to know about Cagliari.

Cagliari in 2025-26

➤ Manager: Fabio Pisacane
➤ Form (all comps): L-W-L-D-W
➤ Top scorer (Serie A): Gennaro Borrelli and Sebastiano Esposito – 3
➤ Most assists (Serie A): Marco Palestra – 3
➤ Injuries & suspensions: Belotti, Ze Pedro, Felici, Folorunsho.

Cagliari finished in 15th place last season, five points clear of safety, and thus opted to part ways with Davide Nicola (who then went on to join Cremonese). The 52-year-old was replaced by the club legend Fabio Pisacane, who received a well-deserved promotion from the Primavera team.

As a side note, Pisacane and Cagliari’s Primavera side actually beat Milan in the Coppa Italia final last season, putting three goals past the Rossoneri. It’s definitely one of the games that pushed the Cagliari management to bet on the former defender for the first team.

In any case, in addition to the managerial changes, there was also some movement on the transfer side of things. Important players such as Roberto Piccoli (top scorer last season with his 12 goals), Tommasso Augello, Nadir Zortea and Razvan Marin said goodbye to the club.

Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

Andrea Belotti and Sebastiano Esposito were brought in to fill the gap up front, while Michael Folorunsho and Michel Adopo arrived for the midfield. The axis with Napoli was also strengthened as Elio Caprile, who has been linked with Milan in the past, and Gianluca Gaetano were redeemed.

On the face of things, as such, you could argue that Cagliari improved their team from last season. The start to this campaign seems to suggest so too, with 18 points collected so far. It’s not the greatest tally by any means, but they are already six points clear of relegation.

Moving on to the latest updates ahead of Friday’s clash, Yerry Mina has recovered from the flu and is expected to start tomorrow. Zito Luvumbo and Joseph Liteta are also back at Pisacane’s disposal, having been eliminated from the AFCON.

The bad news is that Belotti is still sidelined, having torn his ACL earlier in the season, and Folorunsho is battling a muscle strain. There are very few doubts about the starting XI, as such, with Gennaro Borrelli vs. Semih Kilicsoy being the only real open battle.

Predicted Cagliari XI (4-2-3-1): Caprile; Zappa, Mina, Luperto, Idrissi; Adopo, Deiola; Palestra, Gaetano, Esposito; Kilicsoy.

Predicted bench: Radunovic, Ciocci, Prati, Borrelli, Di Pardo, Pavoletti,  Cavuoti, Pintus, Rog, Obert, Cogoni, Mazzitelli, Trepy, Rodriguez, Luvumbo, Liteta.

Injuries & suspensions: Belotti, Ze Pedro, Felici, Folorunsho.