Serie A Review: Sampdoria up to fourth, Chievo out of the bottom three

Sampdoria climbed up to fourth in Serie A thanks to a 3-1 win over 10-man Hellas Verona on Monday.

Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side went into the match in Verona on the back of three consecutive league draws, though they bucked that trend in straightforward fashion at Verona, whohave gone eight Serie A fixtures without a win.

Sampdoria were given a helping hand, though, as the hosts had Mexican veteran Rafael Marquez sent off in the 26th minute for tripping Eder, who converted the resultant penalty.

Luca Toni hit back 11 minutes later, reacting quicker than the Sampdoria centre-backs to poke in a rebound.

But Stefano Okaka eventually restored the away side’s lead in the 57th minute, heading in Manolo Gabbiadini’s cross.

The highly rated Gabbiadini, who sporting director Carlo Osti revealed pre-match is being targeted by Napoli, played an integral role in the third goal too, prodding home from close range with 28 minutes left to put the game beyond Verona.

Serie A’s other Verona-based side were also in action on Monday, and they fared far better than Andrea Mandorlini’s men as Chievo won 2-0 at fellow strugglers Cagliari.

Hosts Cagliari were slow out of the blocks and found themselves with a mountain to climb inside the first 10 minutes.

Chievo broke the deadlock with just four minutes on the clock, as Riccardo Meggiorini fired past Alessio Cragno from eight yards with an acrobatic bicycle-kick.

Alberto Paloschi added the second five minutes later, steering home after fine play down the left by Ervin Zukanovic.

Although Zdenek Zeman’s charges had their opportunities to score, Chievo kept them at bay and moved out of the bottom three, with Cagliari taking their place in the drop zone.