Samp bounce back to edge Udinese

There’s no better way of welcoming the return of club football than by picking up three points. That’s exactly what Sampdoria managed on Sunday evening, as they rallied back from 1-0 down against Udinese to claim victory at the Marassi on Sunday evening. Goals from Manolo Gabbiadini and Gaston Ramirez earned the Blucerchiati a 2-1 win, taking the team’s run without defeat to four games.

In truth Sampdoria did not have things all their own way in the opening stages. Udinese thought they had taken the lead through Ilija Nestorovski in the opening minutes, only for his goal to be rightfully ruled out after an intervention by VAR. The Macedonian did eventually give the away side the lead, producing a pin-point finish with his left foot from the edge of the box to beat Emil Audero.

To make matters worse, Claudio Ranieri was forced into two changes in the first period. Firstly Fabio Depaoli hobbled off injured after 38 minutes, before Andrea Bertolacci’s game came to an end just minutes later. Nonetheless, the first period ended on the most positive of notes. With stoppage time almost up, Gabbiadini curled a sumptuous free-kick into the net to leave things all square at the interval.

Samp came out in the second period knowing that three points were within reach. Their cause was aided further when, with only a few minutes played, Mato Jajalo picked up his second yellow card of the encounter and was given his marching orders. From then on, Doria looked by some distance to be the most likely winners.

The winning goal came with around 15 minutes to go. William Troost-Ekong was penalised after bringing Fabio Quagliarella down with a clumsy challenge in the box, and Ramirez stuck away the resulting spot kick. The Blucerchiati were then able to see out a crucial victory, the team’s third of the season, which takes them up to 12 points and out of the relegation zone for now. Next up is a trip to in-form Cagliari.

Sampdoria 2-1 Udinese (HT: 1-1)

Scorers: Nestorovski 29, Gabbiadini 45+6; Ramírez 75 (pen)

Sampdoria (4-4-2): Audero; Depaoli (Thorsby 38), Ferrari, Colley, Murru; Ramírez, Ekdal, Bertolacci (Linetty 44), Jankto; Gabbiadini, Quagliarella (Caprari 78).
Subs not used: Falcone, Augello, Vieira, Chabot, Rigoni, Regini, Maroni, Murillo, Léris.
Coach: Ranieri.

Udinese (3-5-2): Musso; De Maio (Teodorczyk 89), Troost-Ekong, Nuytinck; Opoku (Pussetto 78), Mandragora, Jajalo, De Paul, Stryger-Larsen; Lasagna, Nestorovski (Ter Avest 53).
Subs not used: Perisan, Nicolas, Sierralta, Samir, Fofana, Walace, Kubala, Ballarini, Barak.
Coach: Gotti.

Referee: Pairetto
Assistants: Alassio, Valeriani
Fourth official: Marinelli
VAR: Guida
AVAR: Di Vuole

Sent off: Jajalo 51.
Yellow cards:  Jajalo 39, Nestorovski 41, Jankto 88
Added time: 5 + 4 minutes