For seventy-nine minutes the Ennio Tardini held its breath, waiting for a decisive stroke that never quite arrived. Then Alessandro Romano supplied it, and in an instant a cagey stalemate became a defeat that stings. His left-footed strike from outside the box arced beyond reach into the top-left corner, and Parma's afternoon collapsed around it.

This was the kind of goal that flatters a scrappy contest, a flourish of quality in a match that had promised precious little of it. Cagliari, patient and disciplined, needed only one such spark to take the points back to Sardinia. Parma, for all their honest labour, had nothing to answer it with.

The final whistle confirmed a 1-0 win that felt at once slender and complete. One team leaves with a perfect start; the other with the numbing realisation that the season has begun in the worst way. On such fine margins are opening weekends decided.

A single stroke of quality

The goal itself carried the signature of a player unafraid of the moment. Romano collected possession in space beyond the penalty area and, with the game drifting towards a goalless draw, chose ambition over caution. The connection was clean, the flight true, and the ball dipped and swerved into the angle where goalkeepers can only watch and admire.

The assist belonged to Michel Adopo, whose delivery gave Romano the platform to swing. It was a moment of composure amid a match that had grown ragged with fatigue and frustration. When the finish flew in, the visiting bench erupted, sensing that seventy-nine minutes of graft had just been rewarded in full.

There was an inevitability to it, too. Cagliari had carried the greater threat as the contest wore on, and Romano's intervention felt less like a bolt from the blue than the payoff for sustained pressure. Once ahead, they defended their advantage with the calm of a side that knew exactly what it had earned.

Parma left stranded

For Parma, the concession was a body blow from which there was no recovery. With barely ten minutes plus stoppage time remaining, they were forced into a scramble for an equaliser that their afternoon's work had scarcely suggested was coming. The urgency arrived, but the cutting edge did not.

The hosts will reflect on a performance long on effort and short on the invention that separates the two clubs today. They matched Cagliari for spells, kept their shape, and asked their opponents to find something special. That, in the end, was precisely what Cagliari did — and Parma could not respond in kind.

Opening day was supposed to lay a foundation. Instead it has left the home side reckoning with a blank scoreboard and a sense of what might have been had they gambled sooner. The margins were narrow, but the ledger reads defeat all the same.

The table takes shape

The consequences are already stark in a division only one round old. Cagliari sit third on three points, one goal for and none against, the very picture of a controlled, ruthless start. It is exactly the kind of foundation a club hopes to build a season upon: a clean sheet, a win on the road, and a first name on the scoresheet in Romano.

Parma, by contrast, prop up the standings in eighteenth, a solitary defeat leaving them pointless with a goal conceded and none scored. The table is unforgiving so early, and while a single result settles nothing over a campaign, it is never where any side wishes to begin. The mood in Emilia will be sober.

For the visitors, there is genuine momentum to nurture. A maximum haul from the opening weekend offers belief and a platform, and performances of this discipline tend to age well over a long season. Cagliari have shown they can win the tight ones, and that is often the most valuable currency of all.

What comes next

Parma must now shake off the disappointment quickly and rediscover the ambition their finishing so badly lacked. The building blocks were visible in their organisation and endeavour; what is missing is the decisive quality that Romano embodied at the other end. Turning honest toil into tangible reward will be the first item on the agenda.

Cagliari, meanwhile, will travel home with a spring in their step and a template to trust. Solidity at the back, patience in possession, and a match-winner ready to seize his moment — it is a recipe that could carry them a long way if they can repeat it. Romano's strike will be replayed with relish across the island.

One match rarely defines a season, but it can set a tone. Cagliari have set theirs with a swagger; Parma must summon a swifter response. The Serie A campaign has begun, and already the two clubs are pulling in opposite directions.