Genoa vs Cagliari preview - Avelar keeps believing

Posted Friday, April 10, 2015 by PA

Cagliari defender Danilo Avelar believes there is still time for his club to avoid the drop going into Saturday's game at Genoa.

The Sardinian outfit, last victorious on January 24, have lost five of their last six league games, including last weekend's 3-1 defeat to Lazio. They are 19th in the standings and five points adrift of safety.

"We hope that sooner or later this negative trend will change," Avelar told the Italian press. "We just have to focus on ourselves and not on others.

"There are still nine games left to play and 27 points up for grabs.

"We cannot have fear, we need to go on the pitch convinced that we can do well."

The Islanders have the worst defence in the league, with 56 goals conceded.

Moreover, they have failed to score more than once in a given game since a 2-1 triumph over Sassuolo in January.

Avelar continued: "We know we have to be more ruthless in attack and show more focus on defence.

"We are working hard in training to limit the mistakes we make."

The club had hoped the return of Zdenek Zeman as coach last month following the dismissal of Gianfranco Zola would spark the Rossoblu's campaign into life but so far that has not happened.

Genoa, meanwhile, have suffered a drop in form in recent weeks.

The Grifoni are without a win since February 15, collecting just three points since then.

Last weekend's 1-1 draw against Udinese dropped Genoa to ninth in the standings.

"We deserved much more than a point against Udinese," Genoa coach Gian Piero Gaperini said. "But when you do not kill the game off, you run the risk of giving away an equaliser."

Lack of goalscoring has been Genoa's main problem.

The Liguria club have found the back of the net just once in the last three league games.

Cagliari are without defender Francesco Pisano and midfielder Godfred Donsah, with both out injured, while defender Modibo Diakite must serve a one-match ban.

Fortunately for Zeman, defender Antonio Balzano will return from suspension.