Serie A | Torino 3-0 Sampdoria: Dominant Granata
Torino dominated this match, as the goals from Dennis Praet, Wilfried Singo and Andrea Belotti swept Sampdoria aside, while Adrien Silva saw red for dissent.
The hosts were without Rolando Mandragora, Marko Pjaca, Cristian Ansaldi and Simone Edera, losing Josip Brekalo to a muscular problem in the warm-up. The visitors missed Mikkel Damsgaard, Valerio Verre and Ronaldo Vieira. Samp switched to three at the back and used Antonio Candreva in a more advanced trequartista role.
Dennis Praet scored his debut Toro goal and did it against his former club. It was a well-worked give-and-go between Karol Linetty and Antonio Sanabria, the former pulling back from the by-line for Praet, as Julian Chabot was only able to postpone the inevitable tap-in.
Morten Thorsby turned a header over, although he should’ve left it for Fabio Quagliarella in a better position behind him, while Linetty couldn’t keep his finish down from Praet’s assist.
Samp were pushing after the restart, but caught out horribly on the counter-attack from their own corner. Tommaso Pobega sparked the counter from his own area, spread it to Wilfried Singo on the edge of the other box and the 20-year-old drilled in at the near post.
Samp seemed to crumble, Toro threatening a third with Andrea Belotti, Linetty and Vojvoda unable to keep their finishes on target.
The Blucerchiati also went down to 10 men, as Adrien Silva was shown a red card for dissent when arguing about a throw-in.
Nonetheless, Samp had their first shot on target moments later, Manolo Gabbiadini straight at Vanja Milinkovic-Savic on the turn.
Belotti almost had a third when his attempt from a corner bounced off the base of the upright, while Emil Audero rushed out to send Praet wide after the Ola Aina through ball and Pobega’s strike was deflected wide.
Simone Verdi made his first appearance since August after injury and Belotti generously rolled the ball over for him to score, but his teammate had wandered offside.
Instead, Belotti got the third in stoppages when gathering from Bremer and thumping in the angled drive for his 100th career Serie A goal.
Torino 3-0 Sampdoria
Praet 16 (T), Singo 52 (T), Belotti 93 (T)
Sent off: Silva 67 (S)
