Bologna in the sights. «The problem is not so much the fifth place in the rankings, which is well deserved», Claudio Ranieri is keen to point out from the press room of the “Crai Sport Center” in Assemini. «It is one of the teams that has scored more points than last championship in this period. He's playing an extraordinary tournament. Congratulations to the club for the players it bought in the summer and to Thiago Motta for how he makes them play." Cagliari, for their part, must raise the bar. «Thirty-two goals conceded are too many and we can no longer concede those easy goals that we conceded in the first round», states the Testaccio coach with a hard face. «Incidents of lack of clarity and lack of skill are no longer allowed. Serie A is too precious an asset and there is no more time to waste."
The emergency in attack will inevitably affect the choices, both at the beginning and during the match, admits Ranieri who reiterates the withdrawals of Lapadula and Mancosu, as well as those of Oristanio, Luvumbo (busy with Angola in the Africa Cup of Nations) and Shomurodov. No alibi, though. The rossoblù coach makes a virtue of necessity and reiterates: «We know that we cannot compete in the transfer market if we don't sell first. We must therefore be more compact, wear the helmet and play it point by point. And improve, both in the defensive and offensive phases."
Before the start of the press conference, Ranieri immediately took the floor to send a message to Sven Goran Eriksson , the Swedish coach who in recent days revealed that he was suffering from an incurable tumor: «I am very sorry that this terrible disease has passionate about a wonderful person. I send him good luck."
