Atalanta 1 - 0 Cagliari - Pressure mounts on Cagliari boss after defeat

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2011 by PA

Atalanta heaped more pressure on to under-fire Cagliari manager Massimo Ficcadenti with a late winner in their 1-0 victory at Atleti Azzurri d'Italia.

German Denis scored the only goal of the game in the 80th minute as Cagliari extended their winless run to five games.

Atalanta moved up to 11th in the overall standings following the win, one point behind the Sardinian club who remain in 10th.

Goalscorer Denis missed several chances to give the home side the lead in the first half after his close-range header went wide in the eighth minute, before another strike missed the post.

Cagliari striker Nene forced a save from Andrea Consigli just after half an hour when his right-footed shot from a tight angle was saved by the Atalanta goalkeeper.

Denis then went close twice in two minutes when he headed just wide of the right post before Michael Agazzi saved his second chance seconds later from Maximiliano Moralez's testing cross.

Andrea Masiello almost opened the scoring for Atalanta two minutes after the break but the defender's strike hit the bar from a tight angle.

Cagliari then had several chances to score but they failed to convert any as their luck seemed to be out.

It fell to Denis to fire home the only goal of the match 10 minutes before the final whistle with a right-footed strike from the centre of the area.

Conti and Nene had good chances to equalise in the dying minutes but Consigli denied their strikes to seal Atalanta's fifth league win of the season.