🎥 Why Cagliari fans aren’t in the mood to do Napoli any favours ✍ | OneFootball

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

It's not just football. It never has been, when memory, pride, and scars that time has not erased are at stake. Napoli-Cagliari, tonight, is worth a championship for the blues and history. But for the red and blues and their fans, it's something bigger: it's the chance to close a circle that had its peak of anger and pain on June 15, 1997.

On that day, at the San Paolo, a relegation playoff was played between Cagliari and Piacenza. A decisive match, but marked by a poisoned climate: many Neapolitan fans, present in the stands, decided to support Piacenza. A gesture that the Sardinians experienced as a betrayal. Cagliari lost and was relegated to Serie B. The memory of that match, and especially of that fierce hostility, has turned into resentment. And that resentment is still there, ready to explode.

But the seed of rivalry had already been planted a few years earlier. In 1992, Daniel Fonseca left Cagliari to wear the Napoli jersey. A wound never accepted by the red and blue fans, which finally flared up when the Uruguayan, returning as an opponent to Sant'Elia, scored a brace and celebrated with an umbrella gesture towards the Sardinian curve. An affront that was imprinted in the collective memory as an act of defiance and disrespect.

These were not the only episodes that strained relations. Even Claudio Ranieri's move to the Napoli bench, after being a long-time symbol of Cagliari, was experienced as an affront by many Sardinian fans. A sum of wounds, gestures, and choices never digested, which over the years has fueled a never-sleeping hostility.

To rekindle the fire, then, it took recent episodes. In 2024, first on a ferry heading towards Sardinia, then in the away sector of the Cagliari stadium, a banner appeared with the words "A caccia di pecore" (Hunting sheep). A heavy offense, which reopened old wounds and inflamed a never-sleeping sentiment. And today, that pending account returns to the table, with a challenge that promises sparks inside and outside the field.

History repeats itself, but with the roles reversed. Napoli is one step away from the championship, Cagliari is already safe. But for the red and blue fans, this is not just any match. It's the match. No calculations, no pressure: just pride, memory, and a fierce desire for revenge. "Honor the jersey", is the appeal that bounces on social media. "Spoil their party". Twenty-eight years have passed, but some rivalries do not consume themselves. They sediment.

For Davide Nicola, called to deal with numerous absences, it will be a very tough test. But precisely the absence of pressure could play in favor of his team: free minds, extra motivations. The tension will be all on Napoli's shoulders, who cannot afford false steps. And this is what makes Cagliari so dangerous: nothing to lose, everything to prove.

The rivalry between these two teams has never been a classic. It's a low-intensity war that has lasted for years, made of episodes, phrases, and twisted glances. But this time, it's all declared: Napoli runs for glory, Cagliari for dignity. On the field, there will be two intertwined stories, two open wounds, two opposing but equally powerful motivations. Because not all matches make history, but some avenge it.