| Adrian Mutu saw red as Fiorentina's week went from bad to worse, losing fourth place to Milan, but Cagliari can taste safety. These two sides were swinging in different directions, as the Sardinians went from the bottom of the table to five points clear of the drop zone and were unbeaten here in eight games, while the Viola were losing their grip on fourth place and went out of the UEFA Cup on penalties to Rangers in Thursday's semi-final. Christian Vieri was injured, while Riccardo Montolivo sat out a ban. The Sardinians were without top scorer Robert Acquafresca, so had to reshuffle their system.
Sebastien Frey rushed out in the opening six minutes to close down Davide Biondini clear on goal, while Kuzmanovic drilled just over from 30 metres. Cagliari took the lead with the rather tiny Nelson Jeda's header from a corner kick, highlighting Fiorentina's defensive error. Per Kroldrup had penalty appeals ignored for a shirt tug as he nodded a corner over, then substitute Fabio Liverani's free kick was parried. In first half stoppages Jeda just failed to get on the end of Pisano's cross. Mario Alberto Santana came on at the break and his cross was scuffed wide by Liverani. Instead, Cagliari doubled their lead by again taking advantage of some shaky defending. Cossu and Alessandro Matri combined to move the ball around in the box and roll across for Daniele Conti to tap in from six yards. Moments later Fiorentina got back into it with Liverani's assist for Santana's strike. Frey had to parry another Biondini run, while Marco Storari's fingertips trapped an Adrian Mutu low drive. On the hour mark Mutu's lob was well over from a very promising position set up by Liverani. Liverani's brilliant chipped pass was volleyed wide by Giampaolo Pazzini, but Fiorentina ended the game with 10 men, as Mutu saw red for taking his protests too far after a booking. | 
