With Fiorentina set to travel to Cagliari for the lunchtime kick-off this Sunday, we’ve trawled the archives to find these five key things you need to know ahead of the game at the Sardegna Arena.

2.    Fiorentina have faced Cagliari 40 times in Sardinia (38 times in Serie A, one in Serie B and one in the Coppa Italia). As things stand, the record reads 18 Cagliari wins, 15 draws and seven Fiorentina wins, with Cagliari scoring 50 goals to Fiorentina’s 35 along the way. The trip to Cagliari is always a difficult away match, and indeed the Viola once went a whopping 41 years without winning in Sardinia: from the 1-0 win secured thanks to a goal from Paolino Nuti on 19 September 1965 to the 2-0 victory on 20 December 2006, when Luca Toni bagged a brace. Between those two matches, Fiorentina lost 13 times and drew on 12 occasions at Cagliari.

3.    Cagliari and Fiorentina each won one of the last two Italian championships of the 1960s. The Viola won the Scudetto in 1969, while Cagliari clinched the title in 1970. The two teams were very evenly matched back then, with both meetings between the two sides in Cagliari in the 1968/69 and 1969/70 seasons finishing in draws: a 1-1 draw on 13 October 1968 with goals from Mario Maraschi and Luigi Riva and a 0-0 stalemate on 8 February 1970. Both games took place at the old Stadio Amsicora, which has replaced by the Stadio Sant’Elia in the 1970/71 season.

4.    It might be one of the most painful episodes in Fiorentina history, but we can’t overlook the Cagliari v Fiorentina match of 16 May 1982. The two sides came into the match with completely different aims: Fiorentina were fighting for Scudetto glory, while Cagliari were playing for the point they needed to avoid relegation. At the same time, another crunch game was being played at Catanzaro, who were hosting Juventus – the team level with Fiorentina at the top of the table. Both games were goalless until the closing stages, when a Liam Brady scored what proved to be the winner for Juventus from the penalty spot. Meanwhile, back in Cagliari, Fiorentina had a Francesco Graziano goal chalked off in controversial circumstances. The final whistle confirmed it: Juventus were champions on 46 points, with Fiorentina having to settle for second on 45. It would have been a long ferry ride home for the Viola.

5.    The most recent Cagliari v Fiorentina fixture took place on 15 March 2019 and ended in a 2-1 win for the Sardinians, with Federico Chiesa’s 88th-minute goal not enough to salvage a point after earlier strikes from Joao Pedro and Luca Ceppitelli. The game was part of the 14-match winless run endured by the Viola at the back end of last season: the unhappy streak began with the 3-3 home draw against Inter on 24 February to the 0-0 draw with Genoa, again at the Franchi, on 26 May. The result was enough to finally secure Fiorentina’s place in Serie A on the last day of the season.