In their first full campaign with Daniele De Rossi as their head coach, Sunday’s Serie A opener will have Roma traveling to Sardinia to play Cagliari.
While the Giallorossi said an unspecified goodbye to Jose Mourinho last season, the Isolani bid a slightly warmer farewell to the veteran coach Claudio Ranieri, who finally called it quits.
With just one point separating them from the relegation zone at the end of the previous season, Cagliari ended in 16th place. They will be hoping that things will be different this time around since they spent the bulk of the season in and around the bottom three. After two victories and a tie in their previous three games, a 3-1 victory against Carrarese in the Coppa Italia was a breath of fresh air.
The Sardinians' task is to regain their home form, which began to wane toward the end of the previous campaign. They had only two victories in their final seven home games as the league season came to a close. Roma, on the other hand, ended sixth with 63 points, five points behind the top five clubs, and narrowly outside the Champions League qualification spots.
Sacking Europa Conference League-winning manager Mourinho for a homegrown hero in the middle of the season did not exactly help Roma climb the Serie A table as they only finished the season in the sixth place – for the third season in a row.
After gaining 63 points once again – that same number was achieved in both the prior years – the club management had no doubts about the necessity of a shift, so Daniele De Rossi was signed for the next three years and multiple new players were offered.
Notably, Girona’s La Liga ‘Pichichi’ last season, Artem Dovbyk, has been signed, while Matias Soule and Enzo Le Fee should invigorate a workmanlike midfield.
As such, it is expected that Roma needs to fight for the Champions League place although there are questions regarding the future of Dybala – Paulo ‘La Joya’ is an exciting forward who has attracted attention from Saudi Arabia.
Defeated by Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, De Rossi’s team lost only six times in 27 competitive matches in the previous season, while in the preparatory matches, in total, they lost only once in six.
Having wrapped up their warm-up schedule with a 1-1 draw with Everton, the Giallorossi come into a new league season against a side they have consistently beaten for many years so anything but the full six points will be deemed failure.
Cagliari have been poor against Roma winning only 1 out 18 last league games against them, they have been defeated 13 of those including the last 4 with a 4-0 loss away in February.
In Sardinia, where premier survival specialist Davide Nicola has since filled the void, the departure of former Roma coach Claudio Ranieri was met with intense passion after he guided the Rossoblu back to Serie A and then managed to keep them afloat by a single point the previous season.
The latter's duty in 2024–25 will be identical to that of the person who helped Empoli survive last season after performing similar rescues at Crotone and Salernitana.
Cagliari escaped an upset against the Tuscan minnows in the first round of the Coppa Italia after a mixed bag of results in preseason friendly. On Monday, they returned to competitive play against Carrarese.
Romelu Lukaku, Leonardo Spinazzola, and Paulo Dybala are among the seasoned players who may have departed Roma this summer; nonetheless, new arrivals Matias Soule, Enzo Le Fee, and Artem Dovbyk ought to start on Sunday.
Dovbyk will start in place of Lukaku up front, while Soule will replace his countryman Dybala. Leandro Paredes, who is suspended, may be replaced by Lea Fee.
Italy midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini will lead Daniele De Rossi's first-choice starting lineup because the coach has not disclosed any fitness concerns.
Cagliari is hoping for a healthy start to their Serie A game, although they will be without banned forward Yerry Mina.
