Monza came back from an early Alberto Dossena goal to snatch a point away to Cagliari, hitting the crossbar twice along with the equaliser from substitute Mirko Maric.
The Sardinians moved to a three-man defence with Nahitan Nandez, Alessandro Di Pardo, Marco Mancosu, Elio Capradossi and Marko Rog still out of action. The visitors were without Armando Izzo and Gianluca Caprari, plus suspended Papu Gomez.
It was a strong start from both teams, as Simone Scuffet needed a tough save in the opening minutes on Danilo D’Ambrosio’s header from a corner, then Michele Di Gregorio pushed a Nicolas Viola effort round the post.
On the resulting corner, Cagliari took the lead. Although Di Gregorio managed a fantastic save on Edoardo Goldaniga’s header, he could do nothing on Alberto Dossena’s rebound.
The hosts had a series of corners that caused problems for Monza, while Scuffet pushed a Samuele Birindelli strike round the upright.
Monza came out fighting for the second half, as first Dany Mota Carvalho’s scuffed volley looped up and bounced off the crossbar, then substitute Mirko Maric took just four minutes to get the equaliser and his first ever Serie A goal, nodding in the Kyriakopoulos corner.
Roberto Gagliardini’s long-range strike was palmed away by Scuffet and Gianluca Lapadula ballooned over the bar from 12 yards.
Monza thought they’d won it deep into stoppages, but Patrick Ciurria was denied by the frame of the goal, the second time his team had rattled the woodwork.
Cagliari 1-1 Monza
Dossena 10 (C), Maric 61 (M)
Player statistic
| Alberto Dossena |  |
10' | ||
| Matteo Prati |  |
42' |
| 48' | |
Samuele Birindelli | ||
| 61' | |
Mirko Maric (Assist: Georgios Kyriakopoulos) | ||
| 69' | |
José Machín |
Match statistic
