Frosinone had the better of the first half, Cagliari equalised late on and then saw Antonio Barella sent off, but held on for a point.
This was a relegation dogfight, as the hosts had started finding some form of late, losing only one of the previous five rounds, despite continuing to miss Emil Hallfredsson, Luca Paganini and Federico Dionisi. Cagliari welcomed hitman Leonardo Pavoletti back from the start, but Lucas Castro was ruled out for the season by ACL surgery.
Marco Sportiello had to scramble back and block a Joao Pedro header from going over the line after confused defending, but Frosinone took the lead after 14 minutes.
Francesco Zampano knocked it down from the right and found Francesco Cassata relatively unmarked to scuff the finish, squirming past Alessio Cragno from 12 yards.
The Canarini kept pushing, as Cragno flew to fingertip a Daniel Ciofani header over the bar from Joel Campbell’s cross, then moments later a great reaction save on another Ciofani header, this one round the far post from close range.
After the restart, Cragno again flew to palm an Andrea Beghetto curler out of the near top corner. Joao Pedro should’ve done better when Marco Sau rolled across the face of goal, but blasted over from 12 yards relatively unmarked.
Pavoletti had two big chances in quick succession, as first he nodded a Diego Farias cross downwards, finding Sportiello for a one-handed save on the line, then his curler was acrobatically palmed round the post.
Frosinone thought they’d doubled their lead on the counter, but Cragno got down brilliantly to palm Raman Chibsah’s angled drive out of the far bottom corner.
Cagliari were pushing hard with Pavoletti and eventually got their deserved equaliser. Joao Pedro rolled it across the face of goal from the right and substitute Farias came sliding on to it at the back post. It has been a tough year for Farias, who struggled with numerous injury problems, and he seemed to be moved to tears by this goal, his first in 188 days.
Artur Ionita almost turned it around moments later, forcing Sportiello into a save from point-blank range, but Barella rather harshly received his second yellow card for a sliding tackle on Raman Chibsah, as he seemed to get some of the ball.
Frosinone tried to take advantage and surged forward in the final minutes, Andrea Pinamonti prodding into the arms of Cragno from close range, then Ciofani fired at the goalkeeper when complaining he was held back by Ragnar Klavan.
Cragno fumbled a loose ball from six yards in stoppages and was fortunate he didn’t make more contact with Pinamonti’s leg, just getting a finger to the ball to knock it away.