Serie A line-ups: Genoa vs. Cagliari | OneFootball

Patrick Vieira makes his debut on the Genoa bench in a relegation dogfight with Cagliari, picking Andrea Pinamonti with Mario Balotelli on the bench.

It kicks off at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, also known as Marassi, at 11.30 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s five Serie A games on the Liveblog.

The Grifone took the unpopular decision to sack coach Alberto Gilardino on Wednesday after two wins, four draws and six losses.

That includes four points from the last two games, beating Parma 1-0 away and holding Como 1-1.

They brought in Vieira, formerly in charge of NYCFC, Nice, Crystal Palace and Strasbourg, who had Serie A experience as a player for Milan, Juventus and Inter.

It was at Nice that he famously clashed with Balotelli, who joined Genoa as a free agent on October 28, and Super Mario is on the bench today.

The injury crisis is at least calming down a little, with Johan Vasquez, Mattia Bani, Brooke Norton-Cuffy, David Ankeye, Junior Messias, Pierluigi Gollini and Vitinha all back in the squad.

They are still without Caleb Ekuban, Koni De Winter, Jeff Ekhator and Ruslan Malinovskyi.

Vieira immediately makes changes, scrapping Gilardino’s three-man defence for four at the back.

epa11712128 Cagliari’s Gabriele Zappa (C) celebrates with his teammates after scoring the 2-2 goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Cagliari Calcio and AC Milan, in Cagliari, Italy, 09 November 2024. EPA-EFE/FABIO MURRU

Cagliari fought back to hold Milan 3-3, ending a run of three consecutive defeats and lifting them out of the drop zone.

Both these teams are locked together on 10 points, so it is a huge battle for position.

Coach Davide Nicola, who once saved Genoa from relegation against the odds, has practically a full squad at his disposal.

Zito Luvumbo, Gianluca Gaetano and Roberto Piccoli lead the way.

Genoa vs. Cagliari line-ups

Genoa: Leali; Sabelli, Bani, Maturro, Martin; Badelj, Frendrup, Thorsby, Zanoli; Miretti; Pinamonti

Cagliari: Sherri; Zappa, Mina, Luperto, Augello; Marin, Adopo; Zortea, Gaetano, Luvumbo, Piccoli