Muriel cancels out Thereau in draw with Udinese

Sampdoria moved one step closer to a tenth-place finish after equalising in the second half to pick up a point away to Udinese this afternoon.

The draw means ending the campaign in the top half of the league table is in our hands and continued a positive trend from this season of rescuing points from losing situations.

The afternoon got off to the worst possible fashion when Duvan Zapata burst down the left wing in the fifth minute and squared across goal for Cyril Thereau, who simply had to strike home into an empty net.

Sampdoria settled into the contest and had comfortable possession in their own half, but Udinese were resolute and made it difficult for Marco Giampaolo’s players to pass through them.

The best chance of the half came in the 34th minute when Patrik Schick swivelled on the edge of the box and tried to curl one into the far corner, but Simone Scuffet was equal to it. The second half started much in the same way, despite Rodrigo De Paul getting sent off for a two-footed challenge in the 47th minute.

The contest exploded in the 64th minute when Gabriel Silva hauled down Luis Muriel in the area, leaving the referee with no choice but to point to the spot. The Colombian coolly sent the keeper the wrong way to bring Samp back into the game, but as he was celebrating Danilo rushed over and grabbed him by the neck.

In the ensuing melee, Riccardo Pinzani pulled out the red card for the Udinese man and, inexplicably, Muriel too. Former Blucerchiati coach Gigi Delneri was also sent to the stands.

There was little action of note in the remaining 20 or so minutes, with both sides consigned to sharing the spoils.

Udinese 1-1 Sampdoria (HT: 1-0)

Scorers: Thereau 5, Muriel 64 (p).

Udinese (4-4-2): Scuffet; G. Silva, Danilo, Angella, Felipe; De Paul, Balic (Badu 60), Hallfredsson (Ewandro 90), Jankto; Thereau (Matos 61), D. Zapata.
Subs not used: Karnezis, Kums, Altameeni, Parpinel, Evangelista.
Coach: Luigi Delneri.

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Puggioni; Sala, Silvestre, Skriniar, Pavlovic; Barreto (Budimir 82), Torreira, Djuricic (Fernandes 54); Praet (Linetty 77); Muriel, Schick.
Subs not used: Krapikas, Cavagnaro, Simic, Dodô, Alvarez, Cigarini, Bereszynski, Quagliarella, Tessiore.
Coach: Marco Giampaolo.

Referee: Riccardo Pinzani.
Assistant referees: Luca Mondin and Luigi Rossi.
Fourth official: Alessio Tolfo.
Additional assistants: Michael Fabbri and Rosario Abisso.

Yellow cards: Torreira 30, Sala 56, Jankto 90+3.
Red cards: De Paul 47, Muriel 65, Danilo 65.

Delneri sent to stands in 66th minute

Additional time: 0+6 minutes.