Sampdoria welcome Torino to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in an evening kick-off on Wednesday.
The hosts sit in 17th spot in Serie A, but do have a four point cushion over 18th placed Carpi going into gameweek 23.
This fall down the table for Il Doria has much to do with the unenviable record of four losses in their last five home league fixtures. Having lost hotshot Eder to Inter in the last week will not help their cause as they will miss his finishing, with the naturalised Italian having found the back of the net 12 times this term.
They will need new signing Fabio Quagliarella to hit the ground running against his old team, if they are to re-find their form in front of goal and climb the table.
Vincenzo Montella will be desperate for a good campaign after making a dream move to coach Sampdoria in November this season. This could well be kicked off against a Torino side with decidedly inconsistent away form. Having won once on the road in their last nine outings, they will also see this as a great opportunity to seal the three points.
Only managing a 0-0 against Hellas Verona in their last match stalled the Granata’s march into the top half of the table, and Sampdoria missed the opportunity to climb to 14th after losing 3-2 away to Bologna.
Torino did win the previous meeting with a comfortable 2-0 win, both their goals coming from Quagliarella. Last term saw an even more impressive 5-1 home win at Stadio Olimpico di Torino with the Italian bagging a hat-trick. Sampdoria will therefore be glad Quagliarella will not be lining up against them and will hope for repeat of their own 2-0 win in this exact fixture in September 2014.
In terms of injuries, Sampdoria only have Lorenzo De Silvestri who faces a late fitness test. However, both Matias Silvestre and Fernando are serving suspensions.
Torino head coach Giampiero Ventura has only Cesare Bovo facing a race against time to be fit and their only long-term absentee Amauri is still unavailable for selection.
Form Guide: Sampdoria (L-L-L-L-W) Torino (D-L-D-W-L)
Expected Starting XIs:
Sampdoria: Viviano, Cassani, Ranocchia, Moisander, Dodo, Sala, Ivan, Soriano, Cassano, Muriel, Correa.
Palermo: Padelli, Maksimovic, Glik, Moretti, Zappacosta, Benassi, Gazzi, Baselli, Bruno Peres, Maxi Lopez, Immobile.
