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Sampdoria confirmed their solid home record, but needed to wait until the final 15 minutes to bring down Napoli.
This mid-table clash saw two of the most exciting players in Serie A at the moment go head to head - Antonio Cassano and Ezequiel Lavezzi. Sergio Volpi, Paolo Sammarco, Vincenzo Montella, Maurizio Domizzi, Mirko Savini and Gennaro Iezzo were injured, while Paolo Cannavaro sat out a ban, so Napoli had to reshuffle their defence.
The last time these two teams met in the top flight it was an epic 6-3 home victory in December 1997, Vincenzo Montella bagging a hat-trick. Curiously, Claudio Bellucci was also on the scoresheet, but has now switched from Napoli to Samp.
Napoli had a strong start and threatened when Mannini turned a Lavezzi free kick wide, but Sampdoria really should have taken the lead. Christian Maggio got to the byline and Matteo Gianello's foot directed his angled drive towards the back post, but Manuele Blasi needed a brave intervention to stop Bellucci from tapping into an empty net.
Daniele Gastaldello went off with a muscular problem. The game took a while to get going, but before half-time Bellucci's scuffed overhead kick turned into an assist for Cassano, whose shot on the bounce was parried by a fine Gianello reaction save.
The match woke up considerably in the second half, as Bellucci's header went wide and Maggio demanded a penalty for a Matteo Contini tackle.
Cassano had a wonderful scoring opportunity at full stretch on a free kick over the top, but there wasn't enough power to beat Gianello. Luigi Sala's acrobatic overhead kick skimmed the top of the near post.
Sampdoria finally broke the deadlock on 76 minutes. Cassano inspired the move with a fine assist practically on the ground, Bellucci ran on to the ball and curled on to the bar with the inside of his right foot, but nobody could prevent Gennaro Delvecchio nodding in the loose ball.
Napoli hit back as Mariano Bogliacino's shot was smothered by Luca Castellazzi.
Samp doubled their advantage soon after, though, as Delvecchio chested down a searching pass into the path of Daniele Franceschini's angled drive.
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