Cagliari coach Claudio Ranieri was delighted with victory over Sassuolo last night.

Trailing from the seventh minute from Martin Erlic's goal, Cagliari won through Gianluca Lapadula (94') and Leonardo Pavoletti (99').

Ranieri later said: “We can also start after fifteen minutes of the first half. These are three very important points against a team that plays football, knows each other and knows what to do. At the beginning we were timid and ugly and luckily they only scored one goal, then we took over the pitch even though we didn't create much by keeping them in their half of the pitch.

"The matches are never over, we fight until the end and I'm proud of this because it means that they understand what I want. All the boys want to stay in Serie A, they have this objective, and I try to accompany them as best I can. The disallowed goal was a Godsend for us, an offside due to a toenail."

He continued: "Lapadula? He is a guy with excellent professionalism, perhaps he trains too much, he is a machine. I tell him to do less gym to find more agility, but he has this great desire to do. When he scores he always comes to hug me not because we have a special relationship, but because he is more physical in his gestures than him. He is a golden boy and he needed this goal after the one in the Italian Cup against Udinese.

"He's still missing a little bit, but he's on the right path to reaching top form.

"Leonardo (Pavoletti) is our Altafini , even if he looked at me a bit bad because he would like to play more. He is a leader of the dressing room and an important centre forward for us. Everyone knows that I don't have fixed attackers, but I rotate them according to the needs and the opponents, but by taking advantage of all five substitutions available there is the opportunity for everyone to play and I see that the boys have understood this."