Daniel Maldini scores on 25th birthday as Cagliari hold Juventus to 1-1 draw

Cagliari stay in the hunt as Maldini marks birthday with fourth straight league goal

Cagliari’s remarkable start to the Serie A season continued on Sunday as they earned a 1-1 draw against Juventus at Unipol Domus, with Daniel Maldini opening the scoring on his 25th birthday before Randal Kolo Muani rescued a point for the visitors.

The goal was Maldini’s fourth consecutive Serie A game with a goal. Fifteen minutes in, Maldini cut in from the left, had an initial shot ping back off a defender, combined with Paul Mendy who held off a marker and returned the ball for a close-range finish.

Maldini slid to his knees then rolled on to his back in celebration, a moment that capped a rollercoaster few weeks. Last month his driving licence was confiscated after a car crash and a failed breathalyser test reported to have left five people with minor injuries. Subsequent hospital tests for narcotics returned negative, and he was called up to the Italy squad for the first time since Roberto Mancini’s reappointment. He lined up with Cagliari teammate Alessandro Romano in the 3-1 home win over Turkey, the first time in more than half a century — since 1972 — that two Cagliari players started a competitive game together for Italy.

Pisacane project taking shape

Cagliari have finished in the upper half of Serie A only once in the last 30 years. Champions of Italy in 1970, they began this season with four wins from five matches, their best top-flight start for more than half a century, after ending last season strongly with four wins from seven.

The turnaround is built around Fabio Pisacane, a popular former player who returned as assistant coach in 2022, worked with the academy for two years and took charge of the first team in 2025. Pisacane, who earned the Guardian’s first-ever Player of the Year award in 2016, lived with Guillain-Barré syndrome as a teenager, becoming paralysed and spending 20 days in a coma before returning to ascend Italian football’s lower divisions to make his Serie A debut at 30.

“I’ve worked with many great coaches in my career,” said Cagliari midfielder Harry Winks. “Coach Pisacane is certainly at the very top level … Since I arrived here, he has already improved everyone, myself included. I really enjoy working with him; I think he can reach the very top of the sport.”

Pisacane has been adamant about Maldini’s potential, highlighting how he connects lines of midfield and attack while stressing the need for consistency. The manager uses a system that allows Maldini freedom between the wing and a No 10 space. The same principle applies across the squad: Winks’s unshowy work in front of defence allows 20-year-old Alessandro Romano more freedom, 19-year-old Mendy is growing in confidence as a target man, and goalkeeper Elia Caprile has been magnificent.

Caprile helped preserve the point after Juventus came alive in the second half. He saved from Edon Zhegrova before Randal Kolo Muani equalised from Kerim Alajbegovic’s cross. Juventus hit the crossbar and Caprile held Nick Woltemade’s follow-up, with a brilliant stop from Muani’s point-blank volley ruled offside.

Pisacane said Juventus deserved at least a point. Both Pisacane and Luciano Spalletti were shown red cards after the final whistle for a post-game scuffle.

Elsewhere in Serie A

Serie A’s first goalless draw of the season arrived in its 54th match between Como and Roma. Roma started brighter and hit the post through Lorenzo Pellegrini, but Donyell Malen’s red card at the start of the second half allowed Como 80% possession without a goal.

Lazio’s 3-1 win over Monza on Sunday kept them level with Inter in first place, while Cagliari’s run has lifted them into the conversation alongside Como and Roma as challengers.

Maldini, son of Milan great Paolo and grandson of Cesare, has often been dismissed as “un raccomandato”. He grew up in Milan’s academy, debuted in 2020 and has since moved from Spezia to Empoli, Monza, Atalanta and Lazio without finding a consistent stride. At Cagliari, under Pisacane, the player is finally emerging from the family shadow.