Palermo 5 - 0 Cagliari: Palermo punish Zola's Cagliari

Gianfranco Zola endured a difficult start to life as the new coach of Cagliari in the shape of a 5-0 defeat at Palermo on Tuesday.

Cagliari, who lost captain Daniele Conti to a second yellow card in the 26th minute, trailed 3-0 at half-time thanks to goals from Michel Morganella, Ezequiel Munoz and Paulo Dybala.

Dybala struck his second of the afternoon in the 72nd minute before Edgar Barreto capped a wonderful start to 2015 for the Sicilian club by scoring his team's fifth.

Cagliari lost for the ninth time this season to remain in the relegation zone.

Palermo, meanwhile, extended their unbeaten run to nine games to climb to eighth in the standings.

Zola, who replaced Zdenek Zeman in the Cagliari dugout during the winter break with the Sardinian outfit sitting in the relegation zone, fielded a 4-3-3 formation.

The hosts went in front in the fifth minute when Achraf Lazaar's cross found Morganella in the box and his right-footed shot beat Cagliari goalkeeper Simone Colombi.

Five minutes later, Lazaar again acted as provider.

His cross was headed in by Munoz past a helpless Colombi.

The visitors could have reduced the deficit in the 14th minute but Luca Rossettini's six-yard effort was kept out by Palermo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino.

Cagliari suffered a blow shortly after when Conti was shown his second yellow card after holding down Franco Vazquez.

b Things got worse for Zola's side in the 32nd minute when the referee pointed to the penalty spot after Dybala was brought down by Colombi in the area.

Dybala struck his spot-kick towards the far post and out of Colombi's reach.

Palermo almost made it 4-0 before the interval but Vazquez's powerful shot from the centre b of the area hit the bar.

The home side picked up where they left off after the restart and extended their advantage when Vazquez set up Dybala in the area and his shot towards the near post beat Colombi.

Barreto finished off the scoring five minutes from the end with a right-footed strike from outside the area.