Five-star Samp crush Crotone to move up to fifth

A swashbuckling Sampdoria side put five unanswered goals past Crotone as they moved up to fifth in the table awaiting the weekend’s other results.

Gian Marco Ferrari, Fabio Quagliarella, Gianluca Caprari, Karol Linetty and Dawid Kownacki all got their names on the score sheet on a night to remember in Marassi.

It was somewhat fitting that on the night former Republic of Ireland midfielder Liam Brady returned to his old haunt, Sampdoria repeated a winning run last achieved in 1990/91, at the height of their European success – four straight home wins at the start of the season.

Marco Giampaolo set out his stall by sticking with the three-pronged attack of Caprari, Quagliarella and Duvan Zapata that contributed to Atalanta’s downfall last weekend and it took Samp just three minutes to take the lead, although none of that trio were involved.

Lucas Torreira curled in a free kick and Ferrari rose to head past Alex Cordaz, the defender thus opening his Samp account against his former team-mates.

The Blucerchiati doubled their lead with 12 minutes on the clock. Zapata proved too much for Arlind Ajeti to handle and the Albanian brought him down in the box, captain Quagliarella making no mistake from the spot.

Ante Budimir nearly scored for his former team-mates as he incredibly headed against his own bar but instead it was Caprari who notched the third six minutes before the break.

Zapata did all the hard work by muscling his way through a crowded box and drilling a low ball across to the far post, leaving the Italian with the simplest of tasks to turn it in.

Crotone came within inches of pulling one back through Budimir on the stroke of half time but his header met the same fate as his previous one down the other end as it came back off the bar.

Sampdoria set about controlling the game after the restart. Gaston Ramirez replaced Quagliarella in the 56th minute and slotted into the hole, with Caprari pushing up alongside Zapata, while Nicola Murru took over from Ivan Strinic as Giampaolo began resting players with Tuesday’s visit to Inter in mind.

Linetty made it 4-0 in the 71st minute when he scored his second in as many games, set up nicely by Dennis Praet.

Shortly afterwards Christian Puggioni had to be alert to deny substitute Marcello Trotta a consolation goal before Kownacki came on for a 15-minute cameo. It proved to be far more than the 20-year-old needed to leave his mark on the game.

Barely a minute had passed when he was presented with the opportunity to break his Serie A duck. Cordaz fluffed a clearance and the young Pole punished him by firing through his legs for Samp’s fifth of the night.

The rest of the league take note: if this is the real Samp, this team is going places.

Sampdoria 5-0 Crotone (HT 3-0)
Scorers: Ferrari 3, Quagliarella 12 (pen) Caprari 39, Linetty 71, Kownacki 76.

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Puggioni; Sala, Silvestre, Ferrari, Strinic (Murru 67); Praet, Torreira, Linetty; Caprari (Kownacki 75); Quagliarella (Ramirez 66), Zapata.
Subs not used: Hutvagner, Tozzo, Barreto, Alvarez, Regini, Verre, Bereszynski, Capezzi.
Coach: Giampaolo.

Crotone (4-4-2): Cordaz; Sampirisi, Ajeti (Simic 46), Ceccherini, Pavlovic; Izco (Trotta 60), Barberis, Mandragora, Stoian; Budimir, Nalini (Crociata 62).
Subs not used: Festa, Latella, Viscovo, Rohdén, Aristoteles, Faraoni, Cabrera.
Coach: Nicola.

Referee: Calvarese (Teramo).
Assistants: Bindoni (Venezia), Prenna (Molfetta).
Fourth official: Fourneau (Roma 1).
VAR: Manganiello (Pinerolo).
VAR assistant: Baroni (Florence).
Booked: Budimir 6, Torreira 25, Stoian 26, Mandragora 46.
Added time: 1+0 minutes.