Sampdoria Need a Boxing Day Victory as In-Form Carrarese Come to Town

New manager, same old results.

Sampdoria are now on their third manager in what has been a fairly disastrous season for the Genoese side. 

Leonardo Semplici, a man who knows his way around the Italian second tier, has been installed with the aim of bringing the biggest side in the division up towards the play-off places.

Semplici’s debut was a goalless draw against high-flying Spezia at the Marassi, and the hope was that a win could be earned against Cremonese, themselves having aspirations of winning promotion back to Serie A after getting a taste of the big time in the 2022-23.

The game was a scrappy affair, with the home side inevitably having most of the opportunities. Samp’s goal came after a mistake at the back from Cremonese defender Luca Ravanelli (sadly no relation to Fabrizio) that forced goalkeeper Andrea Fulignati to come rushing for the ball.

As Fulignati attempted to clear the ball, he inadvertently kicked it straight to Samp’s Alessandro Bellemo, who swept home a first-time finish just inside the box.

Cremonese, playing in what could only be described as Christmas jumpers, piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser, and they got it with half an hour remaining. 

A corner from the left travelled all the way to Franco Vazquez on the other side of the penalty box, and the former Palermo, Parma and Sevilla man’s shot took a cruel deflection off Alessandro Riccio’s boot and into the net, with goalkeeper Simone Ghidotti set to save save the shot had Riccio not intervened. 

Ghidotti kept Samp in the game with several outstanding saves, most notably from Vazquez and Federico Bonazzoli.

Despite the two points from his opening couple of games in charge, Semplici wants improvement from his players going forward. 

“It’s right to praise the lads in terms of character, but the match highlighted how much growth is necessary in order to jump up the table,” he said. 

“We take the point as a small building block after the 1-1 draw with Spezia, but the performance must improve in many aspects in the near future.”

Next up for Samp is a home game against Carrarese. Back in Serie B for the first time since 1948, the outfit from Carrara have so far exceeded predictions and find themselves in the heady heights of 10th place.

In their last outing against Cosenza, the home side hit the crossbar and forced good saves from Rossoblu stopper Alessandro Micai before Manuel Cicconi lashed in the most-sumptuous of volleys directly from a Carrarese corner.

Stationed at the edge of the box, the set piece was floated in his direction, and Cicconi cut cross the ball with the outside of his left foot to smash it into the top corner of Micai’s goal, giving the goalkeeper no chance. 

Following the game, Carrarese defender Filippo Oliana admitted Calabro had worked on the set piece in training.

It was a goal worthy of winning any game. It gave Antonio Calabro’s men all three points and another big step towards staying in the division. 

Such has been the contrasting form between these two sides at this stage of the season, that if you told someone Carrarese would have two wins more than Sampdoria, they’d be forgiven for thinking you weren’t feeling well.

Carrarese remain unbeaten at home in the Stadio dei Marmi, but the game against Samp is, unfortunately for them, on the road.

With no win in their last nine games in all competitions and no league victory since October 27th, Samp and Semplici are in desperate need of three points. For Carrarese, a point would be a good result to take home.

Yet considering the form book, an away win wouldn’t come as a surprise.