A white Christmas for Cagliari, who dominated for one half and then, in the second half, were left with ten men due to the expulsion of Makoumbou and were beaten 2-0 by Verona.
As always, Ranieri overturns the hypotheses of the day before: three-man defense, with the relaunch of Hatzidiakos, in front of Viola in support of the pair formed by Oristanio and Pavoletti. And Cagliari immediately takes possession of the match.
In the 8th minute a diagonal shot from Nandez ends up wide, while in the 11th minute a right-foot shot from distance by Prati is saved by Montipò and the post.
In the 15th minute Cagliari again and Nandez again, with a lob just wide. Verona conceded and it only showed in the 28th minute, with a personal action by Suslov and the conclusion deflected by Scuffet into a corner. In the 38th minute Cagliari also scores: free kick by Viola, winning header by Goldaniga but the defender is, albeit very slightly, offside. The first half, despite many opportunities for the rossoblù, ended 0-0.
The second half begins with a double change in Verona, with Doig and Djuric replacing Terracciano and Henry. But the story of the match was changed in the 6th minute by the sensational naivety of Makoumbou, who received his second yellow card, leaving Cagliari with ten men.
And two minutes later, Ngonge immediately took advantage of the moment and placed the ball diagonally to make it 1-0 . Rossoblù under a train. Ranieri redesigned the team with the arrivals of Sulemana and Luvumbo for Viola and Augello, but Cagliari was unable to become dangerous. Azzi and Zappa also enter for Oristano and Hatzidiakos, then even Lapadula for Goldaniga. And with the rossoblù unbalanced, Verona can fly on the counterattack.
Scuffet saves on Djuric and Mboula, but in the 45th minute he cannot reach the plate with a sure shot from Djuric.
At 2-0, the 5 minutes of added time were only useful for the Verona fans to celebrate a victory regained after an eternity and which allowed the Gialloblù to overtake Cagliari in the standings .