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A Tommaso Rocchi stunner gave Lazio a much-needed victory, even though Antonio Cassano scored on his return to Rome.
Delio Rossi was running out of time to turn the season around. Rolando Bianchi and Aleksander Kolarov were suspended, with Lorenzo De Silvestri, Luciano Zauri, Mourad Meghni and Fabio Firmani injured. New signings Ousmane Dabo and David Rozenhal were fast-tracked into the side. Sampdoria were eliminated from the Coppa Italia midweek, but had a good Serie A run of seven points in three games and welcomed back Antonio Cassano from injury. Sergio Volpi limped off early on with a thigh problem.
Lazio hit the back of the net after 18 minutes, but it was disallowed as Stefano Mauri was offside when he deflected in a Cristian Ledesma free kick.
This was Cassano's first match at the Olimpico since leaving Roma and he literally missed an open goal. Claudio Bellucci rolled across from the right channel to find him totally unmarked from six yards with the goalkeeper stranded, but incredibly Cassano fired over the bar!
Cassano tried to pounce on a Marco Ballotta error, clattering into the veteran goalkeeper.
Lazio broke the deadlock from a Ledesma corner kick that Mirko Pieri cleared to the edge of the area for Mauri's smartly taken first time strike.
It was almost 2-0 moments later, but Luca Castellazzi was able to close down Tommaso Rocchi before reaching Goran Pandev's assist.
Cassano made up for his earlier howler by converting an almost identical move in first half stoppages. This time Christian Maggio got down the right flank and Cassano fired his right-foot shot under the bar rather than over it to draw Samp level.
Cassano returned the favour, setting up a great chance for Bellucci to give the Blucerchiati the lead, but Ballotta denied the visitors.
Lazio restored their lead thanks to a fantastic goal from Rocchi. He combined with Pandev's flicked assist over the defence to spin round and smack a dipping left-foot strike into the far top corner.
Pandev should have put the game beyond doubt three minutes from time, as Sampdoria were totally unbalanced leaving him the only player in that half, but he was tired by the time he got to the D and drilled wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Former Newcastle United defender David Rozenhal received his Lazio debut just days after completing his transfer.
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