Udinese 2-0 Sampdoria: After eleven seasons in Serie A, the curtain has fallen for Sampdoria. The defeat at Udinese marked the final end of the ailing club of Bram Nuytinck and Sam Lammers at the highest level (2-0).
Ailing Sampdoria says goodbye to Serie A after eleven seasons
The descent of Sampdoria certainly does not come out of the blue. The former national champion is in dire straits both sportingly and financially. On Wednesday, fans, players and technical staff united after the defeat against Torino to protest against the club management. Samp is struggling with large debts and has not been able to pay the players a salary for some time. The professional license is in serious jeopardy.
Things are also going from bad to worse on the field. Sampdoria still had a theoretical chance of enforcement, but that was lost due to the loss in Udine. Basic customer Nuytinck and substitute Lammers could not prevent a 2-0 defeat. With four games to go, the gap to number seventeen Hellas Verona is thirteen points. That gap can no longer be bridged for the gate closer.
Extra painful is that cross town club and arch-rival Genoa is taking the opposite route. They secured promotion to Serie A on Saturday.
Empoli 2-1 Salernitana
Salernitana went on an impressive 10-game unbeaten run, so expectations were high ahead of Monday’s Serie A clash with Empoli at the Stadio Carlo Castellani, but things didn’t turn out as expected. Home team Empoli won the game 2-1.
Empoli took the lead in the 37th minute through Nicolò Cambiaghi, with an assist from Tyronne Ebuehi. With almost half an hour to go, Francesco Caputo scored and extended the lead with an assist from Ebuehi. With five minutes left on the clock, Krzysztof Piatek reduced the gap for Salernitana. But Salernitana was unable to come back into the game.
In the last five games, Empoli has two wins and three losses, while Salernitana has one win, three draws and one defeat. This was Empoli’s seventh one-goal victory this season. The defeat was also Salernitana’s sixth defeat by one goal.
With four rounds to go, Empoli is in fourteenth place in the ranking while Salernitana is fifteenth. The next game for Empoli is against Sampdoria. The teams will face each other on Monday, May 15. Salernitana will take on Atalanta at home on Saturday, May 13.
