Thousands expected at Samp retreat

Sampdoria are preparing for the crucial Derby della Lanterna in Novi Ligure. It is the fourth such 'outside' preparation of the Cavasin era. The first two were in Roma, whereas last week the team moved to the small Piedmont town of Novi Ligure to prepare for the Brescia match.

In answer to an appeal by the groups of the Gradinata Sud, Coach and Club have allowed the last training session to be open to the public, as it has tradtionally been when at Bogliasco.  The Ultras Tito Cucchiaroni and other groups have made a statement calling all Sampdoriani to Genova's stazione Brignole to travel together by train to the town in basso Piedmonte to inspire passion in the team which desperate needs a positive result from the match this Sunday night.

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Sampdoria 3-3 Bresica

'Defenceless' Samp Earn Last Gasp Point

Despite Sampdoria having much more of the possession against Brescia today in what what a tense 'six pointer', only a 92nd minute equaliser by Daniele Mannini saved Samp from a disastrous home defeat, after a far from impressive defensive display by the Blucerchiati.

Pre-match

Samp were joint third from bottom and Brescia in penultimate place. The Blucerchiati recently have lost all three head-to-heads with other relegation candidates, so another would surely be enough to destroy any confidence left within the team.

Injury News / Suspensions

For Sampdoria Andrea Poli and Massimo Volta sat out bans and Franco Semioli, Gilberto Martinez, Marco Padalino were injured. Brescia were missing Matteo Sereni, Simone Dallamano, Cristiano Zanetti, Nicolas Cordova and Pietro Accardi.

Match Action

Bresica had a tense moment early on when goalkeeper Arcari flapped at a corner kick, luckily for them there was no Samp player there to make the most of the opportunity. Nicola Pozzi went down in the box, but his penalty appeals were ignored by the referee, who deemed Pozzi had gone down far too easily.

Andrea Caracciolo, who proved a constant threat to the Samp defence sprung the offside trap, but the finish was too weak to beat Gianluca Curci. Hetemaj allegedly pulled down Laczko on the edge of the penalty area for a freekick. From that resulting freekick Palombo fired in a shot which stung Arcari's palms. The first half was a relatively quiet affair.

The first 13 minutes of the second half was chaotic with no less than four goals! Brescia broke the deadlock when a Zambelli cross from the wide right was cleverly dummied by Alessandro Diamanti for Eder to turn and fire the ball past Curci into the bottom right hand corner.

Sampdoria equalised nearly straight away when Jonathan Biabiany refused to give up on a long ball which looked like it was going out for a goal kick. Biabany did brilliant to pull the ball back under heavy pressure from Bega allowing Nicola Pozzi to nod in from point-blank range.

There was more controversy only minutes later when Pozzi wanted a penalty for a challenge from behind, but the referee waved play on. Arcari quickly smashed the ball long which caught the the Samp defenders out, allowing Caracciolo at full-stretch to tap in at the other end.

Sampdoria equalised for the second time when Fernando Tissone skipped past several Brescia players to accurately place a shot into the bottom corner. Substitute Massimo Maccarone ran past the Brescia defence, but a tackle from Zoboli was enough to push his shot into the side-netting. Daniele Mannini provided a cross from the right only for both Pozzi and Maccarone who came sliding in to miss the ball.

After dominating much more of the possession and creating more chances, Samp went behind yet again. A quality dipping Diamanti cross from the wide right was headed in by the unmarked Caracciolo.

In the 92nd minute Sampdoria fought back for the third time and final time with a real quality run from the left by Mannini weaving left and right confusing the Brescia defence before accurately riffling in with his left foot the injury time equaliser.

Post Match

The one point lifts Samp one point clear of the relegation zone before the Della Lanterna derby next week, however with much better defending the Blurancheri could have taken all three points. The point leaves Brescia in deep relegation trouble.

Scorers

Eder 50 (B), Pozzi 54 (S), Caracciolo 58, 84 (B), Tissone 63 (S), Mannini 92 (S)

Lineups

Sampdoria: Curci; Zauri, Gastaldello, Lucchini, Ziegler; Mannini, Tissone, Palombo, Laczko (Guberti 60); Pozzi (Macheda 85), Biabiany (Maccarone 66)

Brescia: Arcari; Zambelli, Zoboli (Zebina 79), Bega, Berardi; Filippini (Vass 64), Hetemaj, Baiocco (Kone' 74); Diamanti; Eder, Caracciolo

Ref: Rocchi