Cagliari coach Leonardo Semplici said his team ‘need a different mentality’ to start games better, after a comeback 2-2 draw against Spezia in the first game.
Thiago Motta’s men were 2-0 up at the Sardegna Arena on Monday night, but a brace from captain Joao Pedro secured a point for Semplici’s men.
Cagliari 2-2 Spezia: Joao Pedro brace saves a point for the Rossoblu
He was not happy with the start of the match, but praised the fighting spirit of his men, who fought to secure a point in the opening game.
“We started a bit contracted,” Semplici told DAZN. “Unfortunately, we received a slap, a bit like last year. We had to start from the beginning.
“This team is missing a little self-esteem. We have shown that we have qualities. We didn’t concede anything and created many favourable situations.
“Five or six clear chances against one of theirs, where they scored the second goal. We need to improve because this team certainly has some means to be able to play certain types of matches, as they did in the last 70 minutes.
“We need to improve this aspect because we can’t always wait for the opponent’s goal and then react.”
Semplici changed formation from a back three to a back four in the last 10 minutes of the game.
“It was because we had some players who were tired,” he admitted. “We continued to play, as we had done at the beginning.
“The introduction of [Gabriele] Zappa and [Gaston] Pereiro gave a higher quality in the attacking phase and we managed to equalise.
“I’m happy with the performance, because if we look at all the chances we created, we could have won the game.
“I’m sorry because when you go down 0-2, it’s never easy to do what we did today.”
Semplici revealed he told the players to lose the initial fear when he gathered the players on the pitch after the game.
“We told each other that the path is the right one, but that we have to get rid of those initial uncertainties, that fear,” he said. “It was the first game, we were playing in front of our fans after a long time, but we need to be mor unscrupulous.
“We need a different mentality from the first minute. We must always respect the opponent but we must be aware that we have good qualities too.”