Sampdoria well beaten by Fiorentina at Marassi

Sampdoria slipped to a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Fiorentina on Sunday afternoon in a game that saw both teams play more than 45 minutes with ten men.

Doria started well and had the first chance of the game through an Andrea Bertolacci shot on two minutes, but Claudio Ranieri’s men found themselves 1-0 down before the ten-minute mark after Dusan Vlahovic’s shot took an unfortunate deflection off Morten Thorsby and ended up in the back of the net.

Samp’s misery was compounded a few minutes later as Fiorentina were awarded a penalty for handball against Gaston Ramirez, with Vlahovic stepping up to make it 2-0. It was turning into a bad-tempered first half, with Nicola Murru, Vlahovic, Ramirez and Milan Badelj all booked over the next 15 minutes.

That yellow card for Murru would prove to be decisive on 39 minutes, when Massimiliano Irrati – after consultation with VAR – judged that he had committed a foul in the penalty box, resulting in a red card for the Samp man and another penalty for Fiorentina. This time it was Federico Chiesa who dispatched it for 3-0.

A glimmer of hope appeared on the stroke of half time, when Badelj collected his own second yellow card of the game, leaving both sides to play the rest of the match with ten men, but a 3-0 half-time deficit provided Ranieri with a significant headache nonetheless.

The Samp boss made two changes at half time, with Ronaldo Vieira and Jakub Jankto coming on to replace Bertolacci and Thorsby. And Doria enjoyed a slew of half chances in the opening period of the second 45, as Fabio Quagliarella drew a save from Bartlomiej Drągowski with a smart volley before teeing up Vieira with a cushioned header back from the far post – the Englishman’s own header was off target.

Any hopes of a comeback were extinguished just before the hour mark, however. Emil Audero was unable to hold Dalbert’s initial shot, allowing the lurking Vlahovic to fire home to make it 4-0, while Chiesa struck again with a powerful effort on 78 minutes to give Fiorentina a 5-0 lead at Marassi.

Samp did keep working and managed to grab a goal back on 90 minutes, as Manolo Gabbiadini headed home from an Omar Colley cross, but it was scant consolation on a day to forget for Ranieri’s men.

Sampdoria 1-5 Fiorentina (HT: 0-3)
Scorers: Thorsby OG 8, Vlahovic pen. 18 and 57, Chiesa pen. 40 and 78, Gabbiadini 90.

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2): Audero; Bereszynski, Tonelli, Colley, Murru; Thorsby (Jankto HT), Bertolacci (Vieira HT), Linetty; Ramirez (Depaoli 67); Gabbiadini, Quagliarella.
Subs not used: Seculin, Augello, Chabot, Barreto, Bonazzoli, La Gumina, Maroni, Leris, Yoshida.
Coach: Ranieri.

Fiorentina (3-5-2): Dragowksi; Milenkovic, Pezzella, Caceres; Lirola, Castrovilli (Pulgar 67), Badelj, Duncan (Benassi 71), Dalbert; Chiesa (Ghezzal 81), Vlahovic.
Subs not used: Terracciano, Igor, Sottil, Ceccherini, Agudelo, Venuti, Dalle Mura, Cutrone, Terzic.
Coach: Iachini.

Referees: Irrati.
Assistants: Di Vuolo, Santoro.
Fourth official: Serra.
VAR: Aureliano, Liberti.

Yellow cards: Vlahovic 19, Murru 19 and 39, Ramirez 22, Badelj 35 and 44, Duncan 45+1, Colley 53, Depaoli 86.
Red cards: Murru 39, Badelj 44.

Added time: 3 + 0 minutes.