Ranieri ahead of Cagliari: “History is against us but we’re going to try to change that”

With last weekend’s derby draw against Genoa now just a distant memory, Claudio Ranieri has called on his Sampdoria side to build on that result and break their long winless streak against Cagliari when they visit the Sardegna Arena on Saturday afternoon.

“We take confidence from the derby that we’re in a good run of form, but now we need to prove ourselves again in another difficult game,” said the Doria boss, speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon. “We’re up against a side that are very dangerous going forward. They’ve scored 12 goals in their first six games, so we’ll need to be on high alert.”

Sampdoria haven’t won away at Cagliari in 13 seasons, but Ranieri is urging his side to focus on letting their quality shine through as they look to break the hoodoo.

“I know history is against us in Sardinia, but these records are there to be broken sooner or later,” he said. “We’re ready for the game and we’ve been training well. Unfortunately [Keita] Balde has had a little issue so we need to see whether he can recover. Regardless of who plays, I feel very confident in my squad. We need to keep doing what we’re doing.”