Hellas Verona came to the Unipol Domus and left with a Coppa Italia victory, Cagliari 1-2 Hellas Verona, the margin delivered by a substitute who had been on the pitch for barely forty-two minutes when he scored the decisive goal in the 87th.
The match turned on three distinct moments, and the first belonged to Verona. Hellas Verona midfielder Abdou Harroui opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, giving Marco Baroni's side the lead before Cagliari had found any rhythm. The goal was not immediately decisive — Cagliari would respond — but it set the terms of a contest in which Verona were consistently the more composed side. Harroui was withdrawn at 58', one minute after Cagliari had levelled, a double substitution by Baroni that reshaped the midfield and, as the final minutes showed, proved correct.
The equalizer arrived in the 57th, Paul Mendy of Cagliari converting from a pass by Alieu Fadera to make it 1-1. Fabio Pisacane's side had made two substitutions at half-time — Alessandro Romano on for Joseph Liteta and Adam Obert on for Giuseppe Aurelio — and the changes briefly steadied the home team. The goal, Mendy's lead-taking strike that actually only levelled the score, gave Cagliari a foothold they could not hold.
Samuele Mulattieri is the name this match will be remembered by. The Hellas Verona forward had come on at half-time, replacing Amin Sarr in the 45th, and spent the first hour of his involvement in a match that was level and unresolved. Then, in the 87th minute, Mulattieri scored the winner to restore Verona's advantage and end the tie. It was a goal that rewarded Baroni's patience with his substitution — a player introduced to change the game doing exactly that, with three minutes to spare.
Cagliari's difficulty was structural as much as tactical. Pisacane's side made five substitutions in total, including Daniel Maldini and Michel Adopo arriving in the 63rd minute, but the changes did not produce the pressure needed to threaten a second equalizer. Adopo collected a yellow card in the 68th, and Alessandro Deiola came on in the 84th for Harry Winks, but by then Verona had already tightened their shape. Cagliari had won their opening Coppa Italia fixture against Arezzo and arrived here with reason for confidence; a 0-1 Serie A defeat at home to Inter in the intervening days had complicated the picture, and this result extends a difficult run. In their last three matches, including this one, Cagliari have collected three points from a possible nine, conceding three goals while scoring two.
A side still finding its feet in Serie B this season, Baroni's team used the Coppa Italia as a proving ground and found it productive. The 2-2 draw with Virtus Entella in their opening Coppa group stage match had left questions; those questions are now answered, at least for this round.
Cagliari's exit from the Coppa Italia at this stage, on home ground, is the kind of result that demands examination of squad depth and rotation management. Pisacane used five substitutes and still could not find a second goal. The home side's last four matches have produced two wins and two losses, but the losses have come in the fixtures that matter most — against Inter in Serie A and now against a Verona side operating a division below.
Mulattieri came off the bench and won the tie; that is the sentence this match earns.