Samp fall to defeat against impressive Lazio

Sampdoria have not made the best of starts to the 2019/20 Serie A season. The Blucerchiati just didn’t get going against Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio, who left the Ferraris with a 3-0 win. The scoreline may not mean too much at this stage of the campaign, given that Eusebio Di Francesco’s side clearly contains players who are still learning how to link up and recognise one another’s movement. It’s certainly a work in progress, just like part of the stadium, with plenty still to be done.

The boss picked the starting line-up that most expected, with Albin Ekdal the holding player in midfield, Karol Linetty and Ronaldo Vieira out wide and Manolo Gabbiadini and Gianluca Caprari supporting captain Fabio Quagliarella. The first taste of goalmouth activity saw Emil Audero deny Sergej Milinkovic-Savic after nine minutes. The goalkeeper was called into action seven minutes later to prevent Ciro Immobile from opening the scoring. The visitors certainly had the edge in the first half an hour, but had to wait until the 37^th minute to take the lead when Luis Alberto took a quick free-kick to set up Immobile, who made no mistake, finding the net with a lobbed finish, with VAR swiftly confirming that the goal would stand.

The home side responded well, with Vieira firing a left-footed effort goalwards, but Thomas Strakosha was equal to it and there would be no more goals before the interval.

Linetty had a good chance at the start of the second half and there was a shaky moment when Audero failed to control Murillo’s backpass, almost resulting in an own goal. The goalkeeper did make amends a few minutes later to deny Immobile, who was through one-on-one. A mistake by Bartosz Bereszynski, however, resulted in Luis Alberto playing Correa through to put the visitors 2-0 up in the 56^th minute.

There was worse to come, when Immobile notched his second goal and the team’s third with 62 minutes on the clock, punishing more lapse Samp defending.

Di Francesco did try to turn things around by bringing on Jakub Jankto and Mehdi Leris for Linetty and Caprari, switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation in the process, although to no avail. Federico Bonazzoli replaced Gabbiadini with just under 15 minutes to go, before Audero had to make himself big to deny Correa a brace. There were a few more chances towards the end, with Rocchi’s final whistle bringing a tough evening to a close. The team was applauded off by the home faithful, but there is certainly a long way to go.

Sampdoria 0-3 Lazio (HT 0-1)
Scorers: Immobile 38; Correa 56, Immobile 62.
Sampdoria (4-3-3): Audero; Bereszynski, Murillo, Colley, Murru; Linetty (Leris 66), Ekdal, Vieira; Gabbiadini (Bonazzoli 76), Quagliarella, Caprari (Jankto 66).
Subs not used: Falcone, Augello, Chabot, Barreto, Ramirez, Bahlouli, Jankto, Thorsby, Regini, Ferrari.
Coach: Di Francesco.
Lazio (3-5-2): Strakosha; L. Felipe, Acerbi (Vavro 70), Radu; Lazzari (Marusic 65), Milinkovic (Cataldi 77), Parolo, L. Alberto, Lulic; Immobile, Correa.
Subs not used: Guerrieri, Proto, Patric, Leiva, Berisha, Bastos, Caicedo, Anderson, Adekanye.
Coach: S. Inzaghi.
Referee: Rocchi.
Assistants: Meli and Peretti.
Fourth official: Serra.
VAR: Banti.
AVAR: Tolfo.
Yellow cards: L. Felipe 21, Ekdal 25, Acerbi 43, Murru 59.