Disastrous opening ten minutes proves too much for plucky Samp, Juve emerge victorious
A terrible start gave Sampdoria a mountain to climb in tonight’s game against Juventus in Turin and, despite a spirited showing at the start of the second half, the Bianconeri ran out 4-1 winners.
The Blucerchiati made their task more complicated than it needed to be by allowing both Mario Mandzukic and Giorgio Chiellini from a corner to head unmarked past Christian Puggioni in the first ten minutes.
After recovering from those early blows, Marco Giampaolo’s young line-up slowly grew into the game and began to see more of the ball. Dennis Praet, Ante Budimir and Patrik Schick in particular were looking lively and gave the Juventus defenders plenty to think about.
Buoyed by their strong end to the first half, Samp continued where they left off in the second and halved the deficit after 56 minutes. Praet whipped in a cross from the left that Schick met on the half-volley to send a crisp shot past Neto in goal.
Giampaolo immediately gambled and sent on his two most trusted strikers in Fabio Quagliarella and Luis Muriel to chase a result. Unfortunately, the comeback was short-lived and Miralem Pjanic restored Juve’s two-goal lead five minutes later when he pounced on a loose ball in the Blucerchiati box.
That goal took the wind out of Doria’s sails and the home side went into cruise control for the remaining 25 minutes, although there was still time for Chiellini to nod home his second, and Juventus’ fourth, of the contest.
Lessons learned and positives taken, Samp have to turn their heads immediately to Inter’s visit to the Marassi this coming Sunday.
Juventus 4-1 Sampdoria (HT: 2-0)
Scorers: Mandzukic 4, Chiellini 9 and 87, Schick 56, Pjanic 65
Juventus (3-5-2): Neto; D. Alves, Bonucci, Chiellini; Cuadrado, Khedira, Marchisio (Lemina 73), Pjanic (Asamoah 82), Evra (Alex Sandro 40); Higuaín, Mandzukic.
Subs not used: Audero, Loria, Benatia, Hernanes, Barzagli, Rugani, Lichtsteiner, Sturaro, Kean.
Coach: Massimiliano Allegri.
Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Puggioni; Sala, Silvestre, Skriniar, Regini; Barreto (Djuricic 74), Cigarini, Praet; Alvarez; Budimir (Quagliarella 60), Schick (Muriel 60).
Subs not used: Tozzo, Amuzie, Eramo, Fernandes, Pereira, Krajnc, Linetty, Palombo, Torreira.
Coach: Marco Giampaolo.
Referee: Carmine Russo.
Assistants: Fabiano Preti and Andrea Marzaloni.
Fourth official: Giulio Dobosz.
Additional assistants: Daniele Doveri and Gianluca Aureliano.
Yellow cards: Silvestre 42, Barreto 62 and Cigarini 89.
Additional time: 3+3 minutes.