Udinese left Sardinia with a 0-2 victory over Cagliari that was shaped not by the opening forty-five minutes but by two substitutions Kosta Runjaić's side made at the break between the first and second halves, and the goals those changes ultimately produced.
The match turned in a concentrated passage either side of the hour mark. Udinese arrived at the 55th minute still goalless and made a double change: Nicolò Bertola replaced Branimir Mlačić, and Lennon Miller came on for Jakub Piotrowski. Within sixty seconds, the visitors had the opener. Udinese forward Adam Buksa converted with Hassane Kamara providing the assist, breaking the deadlock at 0-0 and giving Runjaić's side a lead they would not relinquish. Cagliari coach Fabio Pisacane responded immediately, sending on Gabriele Zappa for Marco Palestra and Sulemana for the yellow-carded Zé Pedro at 62 minutes, but the home side could not find a way through.
Buksa's contribution ended at 65 minutes when Keinan Davis replaced him — a notable detail given the goal had arrived so recently — but the structural damage was done. Udinese's shape held, and when Idrissa Gueye came on for Nicolò Zaniolo at the 78th minute, Runjaić had the personnel in place for the finish. In the sixth minute of added time, Gueye converted with Davis providing the assist, making it 0-2 and closing out a result that had been in Udinese's hands since the 56th minute.
Gueye's late goal was the decisive one in terms of final margin, but the architecture of the win belonged to Buksa. The Polish forward arrived as a starter, broke the deadlock against a Cagliari side that had kept a clean sheet in Bologna the previous week, and departed having done the essential work. That Runjaić chose to withdraw him so quickly after scoring — nine minutes after the goal — is a fact the data records without explanation, but the goal itself was the hinge on which the match turned. Buksa's opener came at a moment when Udinese had just reorganised through substitution, suggesting Runjaić's half-time adjustments were calibrated precisely for this phase of the game.
Cagliari's afternoon illustrated the difficulty of building on a positive result without the personnel to sustain pressure. Pisacane's side had beaten Atalanta 3-2 at home in late April, a result that suggested genuine attacking capacity, but the same eleven that started here could not replicate it against a Udinese back line that conceded only four goals across their last five matches. The home side finished without a goal, without a penalty, and without an own goal to their name — a clean sheet in reverse. Five substitutions from Pisacane, including the late introduction of Andrea Belotti, produced no change to the scoreline. The single yellow card collected by Zé Pedro, who was then substituted, summarised a day in which Cagliari's disruptions came from within rather than from Udinese's pressure.
The form context sharpens the picture. Udinese arrive at this result carrying ten points from their last five matches, with three wins, a draw, and a single defeat — and seven points from their last three, all without a loss. That run includes a 3-0 victory away at AC Milan and a 2-0 home win against Torino immediately before this fixture. Cagliari, by contrast, have collected seven points from their last five and four from their last three, a record that reflects inconsistency rather than collapse: the win against Atalanta sits alongside a 3-0 defeat at Inter and now this. The gap in momentum between the two sides on the day of this fixture was not incidental; it was the match.
Udinese came to Sardinia in the form of a side that knows how to win away from home, made the right changes at the right moment, and left with three points that their recent trajectory fully warranted.