La Gumina goal fires Doria into Coppa Italia fourth round

A 54th-minute goal from Antonino La Gumina proved the difference as Sampdoria beat Salernitana 1-0 at Marassi on Tuesday afternoon to advance to the Coppa Italia fourth round.

Despite the narrow margin of victory, it was a dominant performance from a much-changed Sampdoria side, as Claudio Ranieri’s men extending their winning run to four matches in all competitions.

With Karlo Letica making his debut between the sticks, Samp started brightly and had their first shot on goal after just eight minutes after Keita Balde drew a smart save from former Doria man Vid Belec. La Gumina fired a decent curling effort narrowly wide on 20 minutes, while a lovely move shortly afterwards saw Belec again deny Balde after a step-over from Valerio Verre.

Verre squandered the best chance of the first half on 24 minutes, having been teed up by La Gumina, who himself failed to hit the target minutes later after a fine ball from Adrien Silva.

There was a scare down the other end as Leonardo Capezzi almost found the back of the net with Leitca beaten, but normal service soon resumed as Verre, Kaique Rocha and Omar Colley all saw chances go begging before the half-time whistle.

Fears that it might not be Doria’s day in front of goal were put to bed barely ten minutes into the second half, when La Gumina – who had already worked Belec since the restart – fired a left-footed effort past the Salernitana shotstopper and into the back of the net after some good build-up play from Verre.

It was La Gumina’s first-ever goal for Samp – but the striker could have had another and doubled his team’s lead had he made better use of Silva’s inch-perfect pass shortly afterwards.

Ranieri opted to freshen his side up midway through the half, replacing Silva and Balde with Morten Thorsby and Mikkel Damsgaard around the 65-minute mark before sending on Jakub Jankto for Mehdi Leris ten minutes after that.

A hard-fought finale ensued, with Salernitana throwing everything at the Blucerchiati in search of an equaliser, but there was to be no breaching the Doria wall at Marassi.

Next up for Samp? The Genoa Derby…

Sampdoria 1-0 Salernitana (HT: 0-0)
Scorers: La Gumina 54.

Sampdoria (4-4-2): Letica; Rocha (Yoshida 90+3), Ferrari, Colley, Regini; Leris (Jankto 76), Askildsen, Silva (Thorsby 64), La Gumina; Verre, Balde (Damsgaard 65).
Subs not used: Ravaglia, Augello, Ekdal, Ramirez, Tonelli, Bereszynski, Quagliarella, Prelec.
Coach: Ranieri.

Salernitana (3-5-2): Belec; Karo (Aya HT), Gyomber, Mantovani (Djuric 73); Casasola, Kupisz, Capezzi, Dziczek (Schiavone 65), Lopez; Antonucci (Tutino HT), Giannetti (Cicerelli 73).
Subs not used: Adamonis, Guerrieri, Iannoni, Barone, Veseli, Baraje.
Coach: Castori.

Referee: Prontera.
Assistants: Avalos, M. Rossi.
Fourth official: Di Graci.

Yellow cards: Silva 10, Dziczek 12, Jankto 82, Djuric 88
Added time: 1 + 4 minutes.