Samp’s Lazio hoodoo continues; Milinkovic, De Vrij and Immobile fire hosts to victory

Sampdoria were soundly beaten by Lazio 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico this afternoon.

Marco Giampaolo’s men were never fully at the races and couldn’t handle an effervescent Biancocelesti side, especially in the first half.

It all could have been so different had Edgar Barreto’s sweetly struck volley in the 29th minute found its way into the net. Instead, Thomas Strakosha managed to palm the shot away and within a few minutes, Lazio had broken the deadlock.

In the 32nd minute, Stefan Radu swung a deep ball into the penalty area and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic got in front of his marker Ivan Strinic to stoop and head past Emiliano Viviano on the dive.

The goal gave an additional boost to the home side and Viviano was forced to pull off a string of saves to keep Sampdoria in it.

There was nothing even he could do about the second two minutes from half-time: again Strinic was at fault, allowing Stefano De Vrij to beat him to the flight of the ball on a corner and head down and into the goal.

To their credit, the Blucerchiati were much more solid for the majority of the second half and Duvan Zapata had begun to cause problems until injury forced him off in the 60th minute.

However, two goals from Ciro Immobile – both one-on-ones with Viviano – in the last five minutes put a slightly unfair shade to the scoreline, but ultimately Lazio were good value for their win and Sampdoria must look to get straight back to winning ways in order to keep their European dream alive.

Lazio 4-0 Sampdoria (HT: 2-0)

Scorers: Milinkovic 32, De Vrij 43, Immobile 85 and 88.

Lazio (3-5-1-1): Strakosha; Caceres, De Vrij, Radu; Marusic, Parolo (Lukaku, 19), Leiva (Di Gennaro, 42), Milinkovic, Lulic; F. Anderson (Nani, 79); Immobile.
Subs not used: Guerrieri, Vargic, Basta, Crecco, Wallace, Bastos, Caicedo, L. Felipe, Jordao.
Coach: Inzaghi.

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Viviano; Bereszynski, Andersen, Ferrari, Strinic; Barreto, Torreira, Praet; Ramírez (Linetty, 66); Zapata (Quagliarella, 60), Caprari (Kownacki, 53).
Subs not used: Belec, Tozzo, Sala, Alvarez, Linetty, Regini, Verre, Silvestre, Capezzi.
Coach: Giampaolo.

Referee: Daniele Orsato.
Assistants: Riccardo Di Fiore and Lorenzo Manganelli.
Fourth official: Gianluca Manganiello.
VAR: Luca Pairetto.
VAR assistant: Sergio Ranghetti.

Yellow cards: Levia 24, Praet 25, Torreira 67.

Additional time: 1+0 minutes.