Cagliari manager Claudio Ranieri couldn’t mask his emotions when he met with the media today to discuss his team’s last-gasp promotion to Serie A.
Veteran forward Leonardo Pavoletti scored a 90th minute goal in their playoff against Bari to secure the Sardinians promotion back into Italy’s top flight just one year after their relegation.
“My doubt about coming back here to Cagliari was the fear of not succeeding in the mission,” began Ranieri.
“My first stint at this club helped me take off and took me to clubs throughout Europe—so coming back here and not succeeding would’ve been a shame.”
He continued, “Winning last night is a huge satisfaction and an incredible feeling. We had an entire population of people with huge hearts motivated us in a tough stadium and thankfully we were successful.”
“I think we deservedly won since we played a good game. We suffered a bit but in my opinion we deserved to win and the way we did it made it even more beautiful.”
