Cagliari held the ball, Bologna took the chances and the penalty
Cagliari0 – 2Bologna 
Bologna beat Cagliari 2-0 at the Unipol Domus, and the better chances went to the side that had less of the ball.
Federico Bernardeschi's penalty in the 80th minute settled the match, sealing a 2-0 win for Bologna at Cagliari. The home side had far more of the ball than usual, but possession and chances turned out to be different things. Bologna needed only two goals to win, and both came in the second half.
Nicolo Casale put Bologna in front in the 57th minute, finishing from Juan Miranda's assist. He finished the afternoon with the highest rating on the pitch, 8.4, and his goal was the moment that set the tone for the rest of the game. Bernardeschi added the second, and his own rating of 7.7 reflects a player who kept troubling the Cagliari defence long after his goal.
Ball possession
Cagliari's problem was not getting the ball but what they did with it. They managed three shots, only one of them on target, and their expected goals figure, a rough measure of how good a chance is judged by where and how it is struck, came to 0.32. Their usual figure at home is 0.95, so the chances were thinner than normal even with the majority of possession. Their goalkeeper Caprile made three saves, which shows the visitors' shots were not always hopeless, just rarely threatening enough.
Bologna took fewer shots than their usual 12.1 away from home, ten of them in total, but the quality was higher. Five of those ten were on target, and their expected goals rose to 1.61, against the 0.96 they usually produce on the road. That figure also sat below the 1.92 Cagliari usually concede at home, so the home defence was not overrun, even if it did not hold firm enough to prevent the goals.
No one was sent off, so both sides finished with eleven men and the match was never decided by a numerical edge. Cagliari collected three yellow cards to Bologna's one, which suggests the home side were the more frustrated of the two in the tackle. The corner count tells a similar story, with Cagliari taking one to Bologna's six, a gap that matches how little the home side got into the final third.
The result was a clean sheet for Bologna, who conceded nothing away from home where they usually let in 1.4. They scored twice on the road, against the 0.9 they usually manage. Cagliari, by contrast, failed to score at home against their own average of 0.9, and they conceded two, where the usual figure is one.
Cagliari sit eighth in Serie A on 13 points after seven matches, while Bologna are fifteenth with five points from the same number of games.
N. Casale1 goal
F. Bernardeschi1 goal
M. Libra1 chance created
A. Theate1 duels won