Defeat at Mapei Stadium: Sassuolo achieve comeback victory over Sampdoria

Sampdoria’s unbeaten run came to a halt in Reggio Emilia this evening, as Sassuolo overturned a 1-0 deficit at half-time to win 2-1.

The Blucerchiati deserved to go in at the break in the lead, but an off-colour performance in the second half let the hosts back into the game and they capitalised to take all three points.

Marco Giampaolo made two changes to the starting XI from six days ago, Vasco Regini and Dennis Praet preferred to Dodo and Karol Linetty. The skipper made a decisive contribution in the seventh minute when he managed to track back and prevent Sassuolo from taking an early lead by blocking Matteo Politano.

Up front, Patrik Schick looked in a good mood and in the 13th minute he produced a moment of genius to chip Andrea Consigli, but unfortunately his effort went agonisingly wide. Schick’s stock is rapidly rising and his goal in the 28th minute showed how everything seems to be going his way at the moment: Matias Silvestre let fly from 20 yards and it struck the young Czech striker’s back, spinning fortuitously into the net.

Fabio Quagliarella had a great chance to double the advantage ten minutes later after being picked out in space in a good position, but Paolo Cannavaro managed to block his effort.

The hosts were a completely different proposition in the second half and levelled the score after just four minutes after the restart. Antonino Ragusa beat the offside trap to latch onto Lorenzo Pellegrini’s pass before bending the ball round Emiliano Viviano and into the far corner.

Six minutes later, Sassuolo completed the comeback when Francesco Acerbi headed home from a corner.

Giampaolo tried to effect some change on the scoreboard by throwing on Ricky Alvarez and then Filip Djuricic, but apart from a cross-cum-shot by Linetty (on for Praet who suffered a bloody head wound in the first half) that forced Consigli into a last-ditch save, there wasn’t much in terms of Samp danger in attack. Admittedly, Milan Skriniar should have done better with a header in a decent position from a corner with a few minutes to go.

Sassuolo 2-1 Sampdoria (HT: 0-1)

Scorers: Silvestre 28, Ragusa 49, Acerbi 56.

Sassuolo (4-3-3): Consigli; Lirola, Cannavaro, Acerbi, Peluso; Pellegrini (Duncan 76), Aquilani, Missiroli; Politano (Adjapong 86), Matri (Immello 73), Ragusa.
Subs not used: Scavo, Vitali, Antei, Sensi, Mazzitelli, Letschert.
Coach: Eusebio Di Francesco.

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Viviano; Bereszynski, Silvestre, Skriniar, Regini; Barreto (Djuricic 69), Torreira, Praet (Linetty 45); Fernandes (Alvarez 59); Quagliarella, Schick.
Subs not used: Puggioni, Falcone, Simic, Dodô, Palombo, Pavlovic, Cigarini, Budimir.
Coach: Marco Giampaolo.

Referee: Luca Pairetto.
Assistants: Luca Mondin and Damiano Di Iorio.
Fourth official: Pasquale De Meo.
Additional assistants: Michael Fabbri and Niccolo Baroni.

Yellow cards: Bereszysnki 20, Pellegrini 24, Peluso 45+2, Linetty 51, Politano 58.

Additional time: 2+3 minutes.