All Benevento could hope for from their second Serie A campaign debut against Sampdoria was at least getting one point to make better than their dreadful start three years ago – when they lost their initial 14 games in a row.
But Filippo Inzaghi’s boys did much better than that today as they stormed back to recover from a 0-2 gap and shock Sampdoria at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium with a late Gaetano Letizia goal. Defender Luca Caldirola embellished his Serie A debut by bagging a brace to cancel the Blucerchiati’s lead, which Claudio Ranieri’s side had built in just 18 minutes with Fabio Quagliarella and Oumar Colley.
Filippo Inzaghi lined up his Streghe with a reckless 4-3-3 formation and was eventually awarded for his courage after a staggering start. Benevento’s three-man front-line featured Roberto Insigne (Lorenzo’s younger brother) and former Blucerchiato Gianluca Caprari along with Gabriele Moncini.
Claudio Ranieri deployed newcomer Antonio Candreva on the right flank and added Fabio Quagliarella alongside Federico Bonazzoli on the front line. The 37-year-old had started last week’s match against Juventus froom the bench.
Quagliarella quickly added another cap to his feather as he scored for the 16th consecutive season, breaking the deadlock after just eight minutes. Sampdoria’s number 27 made the best out of a pass from his fellow partner Bonazzoli, who had taken advantage of some poor passing on the part of Benevento’s goalie Lorenzo Montipò.
Ten minutes later, the Blucerchiati doubled their lead as Antonio Candreva did what he is best at – crossing – to provide Oumar Colley a perfectly-timed service that the Gambian center-back easily slotted home, anticipating his marker Kamil Glik to score his first Serie A goal.
Benevento were alive and kicking, however, and in the 23rd minute, Gabriele Moncini’s header prompted Emil Audero’s marvelous one-hand save to keep the score unchanged.
Their pressure bore fruit 10 minutes later as, from a corner kick, Luca Caldirola and Bryan Dabo came up with some sort of a “twin shot” that must have reminded Italian football fans of a similar feat performed by Tsubasa Ozora and Taro Misaki in the anime Captain Tsubasa – which any calcio lover must have seen at least once in their life. For the record, it was Caldirola to whip the ball past Audero to halve the gap and score his first top-flight goal as well, in what was his first Serie A cap.
Insigne Jr.’s shot right after the restart gave a scare to coach Ranieri as he took advantage of a defensive mistake, showing that the visitors had no intention to slow-down.
Moncini came close to an equalizer in the 70th minute as he missed the target by a few inches with a beautiful volley from a Riccardo Improta suggestion – the 26-year-old winger had just replaced Dabo. But it was Caldirola again, with a powerful header, to draw level for the visitors from a Gianluca Caprari cross only two minutes later – wrapping a Serie A debut he will not forget easily.
Manolo Gabbiadini replaced Quagliarella in the 84th minute and went close right away to put Samp in the driving seat again, but Montipò’s right-post denied him. Benevento continued to attack and risked exposing themselves to the Sampdoria offenses – which were caught in offside in at least two dangerous situations.
But then, just three minutes before full time, Gaetano Letizia found the right spot with a sharp right-foot shot to complete Benevento’s incredible comeback and give Filippo Inzaghi a dream start. If one wants to joke about that, it could be noted that the Giallorossi have tallied more today that in the full first-leg of the 2017-18 season.
For Claudio Ranieri and Sampdoria, who collected the second loss in a row, the situation is already tense.
MATCH REPORT
September 26, 2020 – Serie A 2020-2021 Round 2
SAMPDORIA-BENEVENTO 2-3
SCORERS: 8′ Quagliarella (S), 18′ Colley (S), 33′ Caldirola (B), 72′ Caldirola (B), 88′ Letizia (B)
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SAMPDORIA (4-4-2): Audero; Bereszynski, Tonelli, Colley, Augello; Candreva (59′ Depaoli), Ekdal, Verre (59′ Thorsby), Jankto; Bonazzoli (62′ Ramirez), Quagliarella (84′ Gabbiadini) (Ravaglia, Regini, Ferrari, Yoshida, Askildsen, Damsgaard, Léris, Vieira) Coach: Ranieri |
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BENEVENTO (4-3-3): Montipò; Letizia, Glik, Caldirola, Foulon (81′ Tuia); Ionita, Schiattarella, Dabo (58′ Improta); R. Insigne (81′ Hetemaj), Moncini (74′ Lapadula), Caprari (74′ Sau) (Manfredini, Lucatelli, Pastina, Maggio, Vokic, Del Pinto, Di Serio) Coach: F. Inzaghi |
REFEREE: Mr. Dionisi from L’Aquila
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Augello, Tonelli (S), Dabo (B); Extra Time: 1st Half 1′, 2nd Half 4′