Hellas Verona 1 : 3 Sampdoria - Three and easy for Sampdoria

Posted Tuesday, December 09, 2014 by PA

Sampdoria moved up into fourth place in the Serie A standings after they claimed a comfortable 3-1 win over 10-man Hellas Verona on Monday.

Rafael Marquez was shown the red card for the hosts in the 26th minute when he hacked down Samp striker Eder as last man in the penalty area, who converted from the spot to put the visitors ahead.

Despite their reduced numbers, Verona levelled through Luca Toni's fourth goal of the season in the 37th minute, but the hosts tired after the break, with goals from Stefano Okaka and Manolo Gabbiadini wrapping up victory for the Blucerchiati.

The defeat for Hellas meant they slipped to 15th place in the overall standings, four points clear of the bottom three.

The course of the match seemed destined only to go one way when Marquez was shown a straight red card midway through the first half for a poor challenge on Eder, who was through on goal.

The Brazilian forward picked himself up and calmly placed the resulting penalty in the bottom righthand corner as he netted his fourth goal in his last five appearances.

Verona squandered a good chance to equalise despite their numerical disadvantage when Nico Lopez broke down the left but could not get the ball from under his feet in time to shoot.

However, the home side were back on terms three minutes later when Toni reacted better than anyone else to poke in a rebound from a Sergio Romero save.

Samp did not take long to restore their lead after the break, though, as Okaka was lurking in the right place in front of goal to head in from close range in the 57th minute before Gabbiadini made sure of the victory five minutes later after a slick counter-attack.

Okaka missed a chance to add insult to injury in the 69th minute when he sent another effort just wide, but it did not matter for the visitors as they claimed a comfortable win in Verona.