Samp slip to second defeat after bad night at Sassuolo

Sampdoria fell to their second defeat from as many games at the start of the 2019/20 Serie A season as they were beaten 4-1 by Sassuolo at Mapei Stadium on Sunday night.

Eusebio Di Francesco made three changes to the team that started the 3-0 home defeat to Lazio last week, bringing Jakub Jankto, Gaston Ramirez and Mehdi Leris into the side for the visit to Sassuolo. The Czech made a bright start, sending a shot narrowly wide of the post in the opening minutes, before Fabio Quagliarella fired just over the bar on eight minutes. Andrea Consigli in the Sassuolo goal was called into action for the first time in the tenth minute to deny Jankto, before standing firm to keep out efforts from Albin Ekdal and Ronaldo Vieira.

The game changed on the half-hour mark, when Francesco Caputo scuttled free from Jeison Murillo and provided Domenico Berardi with the kind of chance the Italian striker was never going to miss. It was a heavy blow for Samp, who didn’t deserve to behind.

Yet things quickly went from bad to worse: seconds after Manuel Locatelli had seen his shot hit the side netting, Alfred Duncan swung in a devilish cross for Berardi to head home and make it 2-0. Berardi completed his hat-trick soon afterwards with a fine curling effort that found the far corner of the net. The half-time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for Samp – but incredibly there was more bad news to come as Vieira was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Federico Peluso.

Di Francesco sent Edgar Barreto on for Leris at the break, but Samp were powerless to stop Sassuolo adding a fourth two minutes into the second half as Hamed Junior Traore fired home from close range. The Samp coach tweaked things further, replacing Jankto with Alex Ferrari and changing the formation to a back three with Bartosz Berezynski and Nicola Murru pushing up. Gianluca Caprari joined the fray on 61 minutes, replacing Ramirez.

Samp did get their goal, Quagliarella firing home from the penalty spot after Ekdal had been brought down in the box by Duncan on 65 minutes. Yet it was scant consolation, as the final whistle confirmed a 4-1 defeat to leave the Blucerchiati pointless after two games.

Sassuolo 4-1 Sampdoria (HT: 3-0)
Scorers: Berardi 29, 36 and 43, Traore 47, Quagliarella pen. 66.

Sassuolo (4-3-1-2): Consigli; Muldur, Marlon, G. Ferrari, Peluso; Duncan (Mazzitelli 89), Obiang, Locatelli (Djuricic 84); Traore; Berardi (Boga 75), Caputo.
Subs not used: Pegolo, Goldaniga, Defrel, Raspadori, Toljan, Matri, Tripaldelli, Ghion, Brignola.
Coach: De Zerbi.

Sampdoria (4-3-3): Audero; Bereszynski, Murillo, Colley, Murru; Vieira, Ekdal, Jankto (Ferrari 54); Ramirez (Caprari 61), Quagliarella, Leris (Barreto HT).
Subs not used: Falcone, Avogadri, Augello, Chabot, Linetty, Bonazzoli, Depaoli, Thorsby, Gabbiadini.
Coach: Di Francesco.

Referee: Pairetto.
Assistants: Caliari, Mastrodonato.
Fourth official: Maggioni.
VAR: Chiffi, Cecconi.

Yellow cards: Colley 11, Duncan 16, Quagliarella 64, Caprari 87.
Red cards: Vieira 45+1.

Added time: 1 + 0 minutes.