Sampdoria 3 - Fiorentina 1: Casualty Report

Sampdoria outfoxed Fiorentina at home on Sunday, winning their first match against la Viola since 2010. The match was a rather odd one, decided by isolated moments occasionally against the run of play, and influenced throughout by an absolutely unforgivable excuse for a playing field. All the same, the visitors certainly did not deserve to win this match, with imprecision and poor decision making rampant in the side.

Vincenzo Montella elected to keep the 3-5-2 so successful against Udinese in midweek, but with very surprising personnel. Gonzalo Rodriguez, author of perhaps his worst match for Fiorentina, returned to the side, flanked by Stefan Savic and - curiously - Micah Richards as a center back. Marcos Alonso was selected as the left winger, while Milan Badelj was selected over David Pizarro.

The tempo was relentless in the first half, with both sides pressing hard to draw first blood. Fiorentina won several corners in the opening minutes, and Khouma Babacar fired a strong shot just wide after being assisted by one of Josip Ilicic's few positive contributions. Soon after, Sampdoria had a decent penalty shout when Stefano Okaka bounced off of Neto who had come out in a clumsy attempt to claim the ball. Fiorentina returned to the offensive in the wake of the no-call, with Borja Valero, Alberto Aquilani, and Babacar the spark plugs for most attacks. It was Aquilani, however, who was adjudged to have fouled a Sampdoria player in the box moving away from goal on 26 minutes. It was a very soft call, but there was contact and Angelo Palombo stepped up and converted the penalty with aplomb. Trailing 1-0, Fiorentina increased the pressure in search of an immediate equalizer, and Khouma Babacar gave them the perfect opportunity, controlling the ball and turning in front of goal wonderfully only to be dragged to the ground. Giacomelli again blew his whistle, and the usually-reliable Gonzalo stepped up to take. His poor penalty was held by Romero, and Fiorentina had to continue searching for an equalizer. Babacar had another opportunity with an effort from distance that he didn't wrap his foot around, while Borja Valero remained one of the few bright spots for Fiorentina. Then out of nothing Sampdoria youngster Luca Rizzo dribbled to the byline and hit a (fairly fortuitous shot) that deflected off the inside of Neto's leg and in at the near post.

Trailing by two goals in the first half, the game could easily have been over then and there but Stefan Savic found his first goal of the season soon after, with an excellent header off a Borja Valero corner right before halftime. Fiorentina really dominated the second half, but only creating shots from distance and a series of half-chances. The best chance for la Viola came on 60', when a low Borja cross somehow escaped both Aquilani and Babacar from six yards out. Montella first corrected his mistakes from the starting lineup, subbing both Micah Richards and Milan Badelj, and then brought on the FINALLY RETURNED Mario Gomez with 20 minutes to go. The German struggled to impact the game, although he was able to get off a decent strike at Romero's near post. The dagger came at the 78th minute, when substitute Eder collected a ball woefully lost in midfield by David Pizarro. Yes, the turf was mainly to blame, but the Pek had wanted eons before deciding what to do. Eder blew past first Pizarro, then Savic, shrugged of Gonzalo, and slotted past Neto. It was a dispiriting end to a Fiorentina performance that wasn't maybe *that* bad... but was still pretty bad.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Neto 5.5&#10;Richards 5&#10;Gonzalo <a href="https://t.co/7Dvau4Gkhj">https://t.co/7Dvau4Gkhj</a>&#10;Savić 6&#10;Alonso 5.5&#10;Aquilani 5.5&#10;Badelj 5&#10;Borja 6.5&#10;Iličić &#10;Baba 6&#10;Cuad❓&#10;✈️ 5</p>&mdash; Viola Nation (@Viola_Nation) <a href="https://twitter.com/Viola_Nation/status/528938626911305728">November 2, 2014</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pizarro &#10;Pasqual 5.5&#10;Gomez &#10;The referee &#10;And finally, the pitch <a href="http://t.co/G3L5Tiagwz">http://t.co/G3L5Tiagwz</a></p>&mdash; Viola Nation (@Viola_Nation) <a href="https://twitter.com/Viola_Nation/status/528939875702439937">November 2, 2014</a></blockquote>

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Fiorentina return to action in midweek hosting PAOK in the Europa League. Hopefully we can find some answers before hosting Napoli on Sunday.