Siena 0 – 3 Sampdoria

The Montepaschi trophy was contested last night at the Stadio Artemi Franchi in Siena. The beautiful ground in the Tuscan city, framed by it’s iconic red brickwork was host to around 3000 fans, of which at least 300 were Doriani.

New Coach Luigi Del Neri played what must be anticipated as close to a starting line up particularly in mid-field with Captain Palombo dropping back a bit to act as playmaker behind Tissone, with Padalino and Mannini on the wings and darting in toward the center.

The game began at a good pace and Padalino (who missed the Varese game to be at the birth of his son Gabriel) went close twice only to be denied by ex-Roma goalie Curci. However, as the game neared the half-hour Pazzini was brought down inside the box and Antonio Cassano opened the scoring as he did mid-week – from the penalty spot.

Samp took the lead and was in control with the midfield firing on all cylinders. Pazzini was denied a goal after a fantastic lead up play involving Zeigler and all the Samp mid-field. Just before the break Cassano brought the crowd alive with a spectacular volley that went crashing into the Siena net. At Half-time Sampdoria lead by a comfortable 2-0.

The merry-go-round of substitutions began in the second half with Del Neri managing to field an entirely different team (save for Castellazzi, who played the entirety) by the end of 90 mins.

With 5 minutes to go in regular time a long range shot by Stankevicius was mishandled by Curci and bobbed up infront of Franceschini who made no mistake and put the result beyond doubt. 3-0 Doria and a solid end to the Pre-season and there’s reason to be somewhat optimistic as the new mid-field performed very well, and Zeigler seems to be making the left-wing back position his own.

Scorers : Cassano 26′ (Penalty) 44′ Franceschini 84′

Doc