Building up to Inter vs. Cagliari: facts, numbers and previous results

MILAN - Inter vs. Cagliari on Sunday at 12:30 CET will be the 80th encounter between the two sides in Serie A, the Nerazzurri hosting Rolando Maran’s team at San Siro for matchday two of the return set of fixtures (buy tickets for the match here). Here are all the numbers and statistics ahead of the match, compiled in collaboration with Opta.

The total balance of previous results falls in favour of the Nerazzurri, who boast 38 wins compared to the Sardinians’ 14; 27 draws completing the picture. The last draw between the two sides in Serie A came back in February 2014, the Nerazzurri winning six and Cagliari three since.

Inter have only failed to score in one of their last 35 Serie A games against Cagliari (a 2-0 home loss in April 2013), having scored an average of two goals per game in this time. The most frequent end result between Inter and Cagliari in Serie A is 1-1, both sides scoring just one goal each on 13 occasions, the last of which came in February 2014 at San Siro.

PREVIOUS RESULTS AT SAN SIRO Inter kept a clean sheet in both of their last two league games against Cagliari at San Siro, finding the net in all of their last 21 home games against Cagliari in Serie A. The last time that the Sardinians kept a clean sheet against the Nerazzurri at San Siro in Serie A was all the way back in March 1992 (0-0).

LUNCHTIME KICK-OFF ON A SUNDAY Inter won their last early kick-off encounter with Cagliari in Serie A back in October 2010: 1-0 at the Sant’Elia with Rafael Benítez in charge at the time, Samuel Eto'o’s goal deciding the game.

Cagliari have won their last two league games played at 12:30, both of which came this season: the Sardinians haven’t won three successive Sunday lunchtime kick-offs since October 2012 (four in that case).

CURRENT FORM Inter are now unbeaten in 13 consecutive Serie A games (8W, 5D), only Lazio (14) are on a longer undefeated streak in Serie A this season. This is also the Nerazzurri’s longest unbeaten streak in the competition since December 2017 (18 games).

Cagliari have scored 35 goals in their first 20 games of the Serie A season: a record for the Sardinian club after this many games.

From the start of the season until the end of November, Cagliari had recorded an average of 11.0 shots per game, conceding 16.2. From that point onwards Maran’s side have increased their average to 14.0, only conceding 14.6 on average per Serie A game.

Cagliari have lost all of their last 13 Serie A games against sides in the top two going into the gameweek, conceding an average of 2.5 goals per game.

GENERAL STATISTICS Inter have scored the most goals out of any side in the first thirty minutes of Serie A games this season (15). Meanwhile Cagliari have only conceded four goals in this time period, the lowest figure for any side in Serie A.

Inter and Cagliari are the two sides in Serie A to have scored the most headers this season (eight each), both teams also scoring headers in their last league outing.

Inter (14) and Cagliari (12, level with four other sides) are the two sides with the most different scorers in the league this season.

Inter have the best shot accuracy rate for any side in Serie A 2019/20 with 54.8%, only SPAL (35.5%) have a lower percentage than Cagliari (39.4%) this season. However, Cagliari (14.5%) and Inter (12.4%) are two of the top four sides in Serie A in terms of their shots to goals ratio, together with Lazio (14.8%) and Atalanta (12.5%).

Inter have scored the most first-half goals out of any side in the league this year (23), while only Atalanta (28) and Lazio (25) have scored more than Cagliari (22) in the second half.

Inter (six goals conceded) and Cagliari (eight, level with Juventus and AC Milan) are the two teams who have conceded the fewest first-half goals in the current Serie A season.

Cagliari have scored the most goals following crosses in the league this season (nine); only SPAL (17) scored more goals off the back of crosses than the Sardinians (16) in the 2018/19 league season.

PLAYER FOCUS Cagliari are Lautaro Martínez’s favourite victims in Serie A (three goals in three games), with his first goal for Inter also arriving against this side back in September 2018 at San Siro.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo (98) has taken more shots than Lautaro Martínez (80) in Serie A this season: our Argentine has an average of 4.2 so far, having finished Serie A 2018/19 with an average of 2.4 attempts per game.

Inter and Atalanta are the only two sides to have at least two players on double figures for goals scored (Romelu Lukaku on 14 and Lautaro on 10).

Romelu Lukaku is one of just three attackers in the league to not have missed any of the first 20 games of the season, together with Andrea Petagna and Edin Dzeko.

Cagliari could become the first side against which Romelu Lukaku scores in two Serie A games on just his 21st appearance in the competition: the first Premier League side against which he scored in two games was Reading.

Alexis Sánchez next appearance will be his 100th in Serie A, the Chilean winger having scored three goals in six appearances against Cagliari in Serie A: only against Palermo (four) has he scored more goals in the competition.

Before arriving at Inter this season, Nicolò Barella had played all of his previous 100 Serie A games for Cagliari, scoring seven goals. Matías Vecino played nine games in Serie A for Cagliari, scoring two goals which included his very first in the competition against Udinese at the Sant’Elia in March 2014.

Since his arrival at Inter in the 2012/13 season, only Andrea Consigli has faced (42) and saved (13) more penalties than Samir Handanovic in Serie A (ten saves from 40 penalties).

After missing both of his first two penalty attempts in Serie A, João Pedro has scored all of his last seven efforts from the spot in the competition.

João Pedro has 13 goals so far this Serie A season, more than the Brazilian had scored in both of the last two league seasons - three of these have been headers, the most for any Serie A player this season.

Inter are the side against which Radja Nainggolan has scored the most goals (five): the Cagliari midfielder played 29 games for the Nerazzurri last season, participating in nine goals (six goals, three assists).

COACHES Since his first encounter in charge of Atalanta in November 2009, none of Antonio Conte’s sides have lost to Cagliari in Serie A (5W, 2D).

Rolando Maran has lost eleven of his 15 Serie A encounters with Inter (2W, 2D), with the current Cagliari coach only having lost more games to Juventus in the competition (12).