Verdi hits stunner as Bologna sink Samp

Milan (AFP) – Ten-man Sampdoria’s early season woes continued with a 2-0 defeat at Bologna on Wednesday where Simone Verdi hit a stunning first-half volley for the hosts.

Sampdoria made a bright start to life under new coach Marco Giampaolo by winning their opening two games of the Serie A season. 

But after consecutive defeats to Roma, AC Milan and now Bologna, Giampaolo is now under pressure.

Colombian Luis Muriel saw a curler tipped over and Fabio Quagliarella narrowly missed with a header following a corner.

Bologna came close when Mattia Destro saw his drive tipped to safety by Emiliano Viviano just after thee half hour, and twice Ladislav Krejci saw close range efforts charged down.

But the entire stadium was on its feet on the stroke of half-time when Verdi met Krejci’s perfectly-weighted long-range ball with a superb volley that almost burst Angelo Da Costa’s net.

An early-season contender for goal of the season, it took the wind out of Samp’s sails and they failed to recover.

Ex-Roma forward Destro doubled the hosts’ lead five minutes after the restart when he burst into the box to bundle home on the goalline.

Samp midfielder Edgar Barreto then saw a straight red card for a lunge at down Adam Nagy.

Bologna also finished the match with 10 men after Federico Di Francesco was shown a straight red for a sliding tackle on Karol Linetty.

Sampdoria, though, were unlucky with the final kick of the game when Bruno Fernandes’ superb free kick came back off the crossbar.