Sampdoria conquer the city: goals from Soriano and Eder overcome the Rossoblu

In a barnstorming Derby della Lanterna that won’t be easily forgotten, Vincenzo Montella’s Sampdoria have beaten cross-town rivals Genoa 3-2.

The Blucerchiati were in imperious form for an hour at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, after two goals from Roberto Soriano and one from Eder had seemingly put the contest to bed. However, with twenty minutes left on the clock, Gian Piero Gasperini’s players rallied and scored twice through Leonardo Pavoletti. Doria managed to hang on at the end to take home all three points and their 39th victory in the Derby.

Soon after the referee blew his whistle for kick-off, the game had to be temporarily halted to clear the flares that had been thrown onto the pitch by the Rossoblu fans. Immediately after the restart, Pavoletti gave a forewarning of his considerable aerial threat by almost beating Emiliano Viviano in goal from a corner. Samp responded quickly, however, with an Ervin Zukanovic free-kick that stung the hands of Genoa keeper Mattia Perin.

It took until the 19th minute for Montella’s men to break the deadlock. Fernando took a quick free-kick in the opposition’s midfield which Antonio Cassano cleverly turned around the corner. Nicolas Burdisso slipped on his clearance and the ball looped up for Roberto Soriano to volley low in the far corner.

Midway through the first half, Lorenzo De Silvestri was forced off early with an injury and Diego Laxalt tried to take advantage of a brief numerical advantage before Mattia Cassani came on. Nevertheless, Viviano stood firm and saved well from the Uruguayan’s shot inside the box.

The Gradinata Sud was celebrating again moments later, after Cassano released the energetic Carlos Carbonero down the right flank in the 39th minute. The Colombian reached the byline and squared it back into the box, where Eder was waiting to gather the loose ball and calmly stroke it home for 2-0.

Genoa came close to pulling one back in first-half stoppage time, when a well-worked Darko Lazovic free-kick narrowly missed the target, but the teams went in at the break with Sampdoria two goals to the good.

Gasperini tried to shake things up at the start of the second half by introducing Luca Rigoni and Suso, but it was still Montella’s men who were calling the shots. Once again, Fanantonio was the creator in the 50th minute, sliding an ingenuous reverse pass for Soriano to smash home for his second under the Sud.

Genoa began to show signs of coming back into the match, but Viviano showed a safe pair of hands first with Suso and then Tomas Rincon following up. It took until the 69th minute for the Griffin to properly rear its head: Pavoletti rising highest on corner and heading home for 3-1. Shortly after, Lazovic had a glorious chance to pull his team right back into contention only to put the ball wide with just the keeper to beat.

Montella withdrew Cassano to rapturous applause with fifteen minutes to go, sending on Luis Muriel to give fresh legs to his team. However, it was still Genoa on the front foot and they found the second when Pavoletti benefited from a lucky bounce to lob Viviano and head home.

The game was being played at a thunderous pace and there was a heart-in-mouth moment for the Blucerchiati when Zukanovic almost deflected a Suso shot into his own net. Samp then had a chance to kill the game off in stoppage time, but Edgar Barreto couldn’t keep his effort from rebounding off the crossbar.

Doria were made to sweat for the victory but come the final whistle at Marassi, bragging rights in the city well and truly belonged to the Blucerchiati.

Genoa 2-3 Sampdoria (HT: 0-2)

Scorers: Soriano 19 and 50, Eder 39, Pavoletti 69 and 81.

Genoa (4-3-3): Perin; Izzo, Burdisso, De Maio, Ansaldi; Rincon, Dzemaili (Rigoni 46), Laxalt; Lazovic (Gakpé 82), Pavoletti, Ntcham (Suso 46).
Subs: Lamanna, A. Donnarumma, Gomes, Marchese, Capel, Pandev, Muñoz, Tatchtsidis.
Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini.

Sampdoria (4-3-3): Viviano; De Silvestri (Cassani 36), Moisander, Zukanovic, Regini; Soriano, Fernando, Barreto; Carbonero, Cassano (Muriel 75), Eder (Correa 58).
Subs: Puggioni, Coda, Rodriguez, Pereira, Palombo, Christodoulopoulos, Krsticic, Silvestre, Ivan
Coach: Vincenzo Montella.

Referee: Paolo Valeri (Rome 2).
Assistant referees: Elenito Giovanni Di Liberatore (Teramo) and Alessandro Giallatini (Rome 2).
Fourth official: Francesco De Luca (Pescara).
Additional assistants: Daniele Orsato (Schio) and Piero Giacomelli (Trieste).

Yellow cards: Izzo 48, Rigoni 63, Fernando 72, Ansaldi 72, Rincon 79.

Additional time: 6+4 minutes.

Pitch surface: Good condition.