Fortress Marassi breached as Fiorentina inflict 2-0 defeat on Sampdoria

Sampdoria slipped to a first loss at Marassi this season last night after Fiorentina condemned Walter Zenga’s Blucerchiati side to a 2-0 defeat in the late game of Serie A 2015/16’s Week 12.

There was good news before the game as Lorenzo De Silvestri made his return to the starting line-up for the first time since suffering a knee injury on 12 June, and it was certainly an intense re-initiation to league action for the Italian full-back as the match began with a flurry of yellow cards.

Zenga’s game plan was turned on its head on nine minutes as Ervin Zukanovic conceded a penalty after an unfortunate handball in the box. Josip Ilicic made no mistake from the spot, despite the in-form Emiliano Viviano guessing the right way. There was a long way to go but it quickly began to look like it wasn’t going to be Samp’s night, with first Kalinic coming within a whisker of making it 2-0 and then Vecino somehow escaping a second yellow card after what looked a clear handball.

The second half began with Fiorentina once again looking the more likely to score, and indeed they were two goals to the good a minute before the hour mark after Nikola Kalinic exchanged cute passes with Ilicic to stroke the ball home. It was game over to all intents and purposes, with Doria’s night to forget confirmed when the usually lethal Eder was denied what seemed a certain goal by Tatarusanu.

The final whistle brought joy for the visitors as they returned to the top of the table. As for Sampdoria, Zenga’s men must now put this defeat behind them and switch their focus to next Sunday’s match away at Udinese.

Sampdoria 0-2 Fiorentina (HT: 0-1)
Scorers: Ilicic pen. 9, Kalinic 59.

Sampdoria (4-3-3): Viviano; De Silvestri, Silvestre, Zukanovic, Pereira (Mesbah HT); Barreto (Ivan 65), Fernando, Soriano (Cassano 80); Carbonero, Muriel, Eder.
Subs not used: Puggioni, Brignoli, Moisander, Cassani, Rodriguez, Bonazzoli, Palombo, Christodoulopoulos, Regini.
Coach: Walter Zenga.

Fiorentina (4-4-1-1): Tatarusanu; Roncaglia, G. Rodríguez, Astori, Pasqual (Alonso 66); Bernardeschi, Badelj (Suárez 74), Vecino, B. Valero; Ilicic (M. Fernández 82); Kalinic.
Subs not used: Lezzerini, Sepe, Tomovic, Rebic, Suárez, Verdú, Rossi, Babacar.
Coach: Paulo Sousa.

Referee: Russo (Nola).
Assistants: Cariolato (Legnago), Gava (Conegliano).
Fourth official: Tegoni (Milan).
Additional assistants: Guida (Torre Annunziata), La Penna (Rome 1).

Bookings: Badelj 3, Vecino 6, Zukanovic 9, G. Rodriguez 23, Soriano 20, Eder 83.
Added time: 1 + 4 mins.
Season-ticket holders: 19,114.
Match-day tickets: 3,343 (€63,220 gate receipts).