Sassuolo conquer Marassi as Acerbi, Floccari and Pellegrini punish Samp

Sampdoria slipped to a 3-1 defeat to Sassuolo at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday evening in Vincenzo Montella’s first home appearance as Sampdoria boss.

Montella would have been hoping to get some points on the board after successive defeats to Udinese and AC Milan in his first two matches, but it was Eusebio Di Francesco’s Sassuolo who dominated throughout.

It took just eight minutes for the Neroverdi to take the lead, Francesco Acerbi thinking quickest to fire home from a Sassuolo corner. The goal seemed to give Sassuolo’s burgeoning confidence a further boost, and they doubled their lead on 27 minutes as Sergio Floccari’s shot took a favourable deflection to leave Emiliano Viviano helpless in the Samp goal.

The Blucerchiati – lining up in a new 3-4-2-1 formation – were shell-shocked and there was worse to come on 38 minutes as Lorenzo Pellegrini stabbed home at the second time of asking, having seen his initial effort kept out by Viviano.

The second half brought signs of life from Samp, Antonio Cassano drawing a save from Andrea Consigli before very nearly guiding a cute backheel into a team-mate’s path right in front of goal.

Ultimately Samp threatened little, with Sassuolo now content to sit back and look to hurt the hosts on the break. Montella’s side did eventually reduce the arrears in the 90th minute, with Ervin Zukanovic heading home a Carlos Carbonero cross, yet it was scant consolation on a night to forget at Marassi.

Sampdoria 1-3 Sassuolo (HT: 0-3)
Scorers: Acerbi 8, Floccari 27, Pellegrini 39, Zukanovic 90.

Sampdoria (3-4-2-1): Viviano; Cassani, Silvestre, Moisander; Christodoulpoulos (Carbonero 60), Fernando (Palombo 55), Barreto, Regini (Zukanovic 81); Soriano, Eder; Cassano.
Subs not used: Puggioni, Brignoli, Mesbah, Rodriguez, Bonazzoli, Pereira, Muriel, De Silvestri, Ivan.
Coach: Vincenzo Montella.

Sassuolo (4-3-3): Consigli; Vrsaljko, Cannavaro, Acerbi, Peluso (Longhi 68); Laribi, Missiroli, Pellegrini; Politano (Biondini 71), Floccari (Defrel 76), N. Sansone.
Subs not used: Pomini, Pegolo, Antei, Falcinelli, Ariaudo, Fontanesi, Duncan, Floro Flores.
Coach: Eusebio Di Francesco.

Referee: Mariani (Aprilia).
Assistants: Longo (Paola) and Galloni (Lodi).
Fourth official: Ranghetti (Chiari).
Additional assistants: Gervasoni (Mantua) and Abbattista (Molfetta).

Bookings: Acerbi 17, Vrsaljko 29, Pellegrini 43, Silvestre 84, Cassani 90+3.
Added time: 0 + 5 minutes.