Bologna see off slack Sampdoria

Bologna beat Sampdoria 3-1 in a highly entertaining clash in Serie A on Sunday afternoon, lifting themselves to 12th, just one point and one place behind their opponents.

Bologna scored twice with their only two shots in the first half, with Musa Barrow and Mattias Svanberg taking advantage of some slack Sampdoria defending. Fabio Quagliarella briefly levelled for the Blucerchiati before Roberto Soriano put the game to bed in the second half.

Sampdoria started extremely brightly as Morten Thorsby struck the post with just four minutes played, after taking advantage of a Bologna slip.

Quagliarella teed up the impressive Mikkel Damsgaard on the edge of the area, who dummied a couple of times, before forcing a smart save from Lukasz Skorupski as the away side continued to look for an opener.

However, the opener came against the run of play when an unmarked Barrow met Rodrigo Palacio’s cross from the right flank – heading his sixth goal of the season past Emil Audero – with what was the Rossoblu’s first shot of the game on the 28th minute.

Quagliarella brought the Blucerchiati level with a fantastically taken finish from a great Tommaso Augello cross on the 38th minute, but it didn’t last long.

Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side retook the lead just four minutes later, Svanberg sweeping home from the edge of the box after great work from Barrow again, seeing the hosts’ 100 percent conversion rate continuing.

Claudio Ranieri’s men started the second half as they did the first, Quagliarella and Jakub Jankto both having chances to equalise, with the latter completely fluffing his lines from close range. They continued to threaten in the final third as the game went on.

Nevertheless, slack defending let them down again when Soriano extended Bologna’s lead on the 70th minute, tucking the ball under Audero after Svanberg’s penetrative run from midfield and well-weighted pass appeared all too easy.

The hosts twice thought they had a fourth but Svanberg’s effort was cleared off the line and then Nicola Sansone’s lofted finish was ruled out for offside as Samp’s defensive efforts fell apart.