Monza 4-0 Cagliari: four goals from four shots on target

Highlights

▶Key

Sixteen shots, zero on target. Cagliari fired for long stretches at the U-Power Stadium and never once landed a shot on the frame. Monza needed just four attempts on target to score four goals. The 4-0 reads like a rout; the shot count says 14-16. The entire difference lived in the finishing.

For 39 minutes it was stalemate. M'bala Nzola's 0.512 xG chance on 20 came to nothing, Paul Mendy's 0.273 opening on 27 went the same way, and Dany Mota probed in vain at the other end. Then Eddy Kouadio — a defender on the teamsheet — arrived to convert a 0.506 xG chance off Dany Mota's assist. 1-0 at the break.

The restart ended the contest. Gustavo Varela needed two minutes of the second half to make it 2-0 from Manga Foe Ondoa's pass. Jay Robinson added the third on 66, set up by Varela, and on 79 Varela buried the biggest chance of the match, a 0.747 xG opening, for 4-0. In the same minute Robinson rattled the post; Andrea Colpani had already hit the woodwork on 72. Cagliari's answer was Paul Mendy missing a 0.61 xG chance on 69 and a scatter of late efforts from Yerry Mina and Kevin Carlos Omoruyi that went begging.

Varela was the decisive actor: one goal, one assist, a hand in the third, and an exit for Patrick Cutrone on 81 with the job done. Robinson scored, hit the post and made way for Omari Forson on 87. Monza managed all of this on 46% possession — Cagliari had the ball, Monza had the scoreboard.

Cagliari can keep the xG argument, 2.37 to 2.35. Monza kept the only column that shows up in the table.