Serie A
With 19 games played the Serie A season broke off for the winter break. Alessio Burdese and his coaching staff took this time to reflect on the last five months. With a pre-season media prediction of 7th and title odds of 25/1 could Sampdoria repeat last seasons over-achievement, or would they, as many internet experts had said, “revert to the mean”?
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
The season started at Luigi Ferraris with a home win against newly-promoted Palermo. A brace from loanee Mayoral and a goal from Lo Celso was a very positive start for Sampdoria’s summer dealings. However, having scored twice disaster struck for Borja Mayoral as he suffered a torn hamstring resulting in 2 months out. A following 3-0 win away at Frosinone gave La Sampa fans more positive opinions of summer transfers with a brace from Lucas Tousart, the ball-winning midfielder who is not noted for his goal-scoring started his time in Italy with a bang.
Tousart continued his goal-scoring form with another against Brescia in a 1-0 win. Then in a slight act of revenge for last seasons Coppa Italia final, a Quagliarella double resulted in a 2-1 win against Internazionale. La Sampas poor form against the red side of Milan continued with a hard-fought 1-0 loss, before a draw vs La Viola.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
Two of La Sampa’s promising young strikers were on target vs Parma, a double from Bonazzoli and a goal from Nik Prelec ended a 4-0 rout. A draw away in Naples continued Sampdorias good form before the visit of second-placed Lazio. With Gabbiadini struggling in attack, Borja Mayoral was subbed on having just recovered from his torn hamstring. With the game nearing its end the Spaniard marked his return for La Blucerchiati.
A Federico Bonazzoli double helped Sampdoria leave Lombardy with three points to round off October. Two draws started November both in Genoa including a draw vs Juventus. Ronaldo Vieira scored his first ever Sampdoria goal to share the points, Fabio Quagliarella was unable to mark his final appearance against one of his former clubs with a goal. Gabbiadini, Bonazzoli & Samper scored to provide Sampdoria with their first-win in November against SPAL.
DECEMBER
Three wins, two draws and a defeat rounded out 2020 for Sampdoria. Bonazzoli and Mayoral continued their good goal scoring form this season, Gabbiadini (having not scored until 22nd of November) scored his 3rd goal in 4 weeks with both goals vs Udinese. Sassuolo handed Sampdoria their second league defeat of the season before a 2-0 win vs Chievo ended 2020 positively. The game was a routine win for Sampdoria, however, was marked by this remarkable assist by Morten Thorsby.
Sampdoria finished the 2020 calendar year in 2nd place. A single point behind Juventus and equal in points with both Internazionale & Napoli. A very promising 1/2 of the season from La Blucerchiati, gave Alessio and his team a lot of confidence that they could continue this form and at least bring champions league football to Genoa for a second season, if not challenge for the Scudetto.
Coppa Italia
A repeat of last seasons run to the final was not achieved by Sampdoria. A first-round defeat to Bielsa’s Atalanta brought an end to any dreams of success. A first-half performance below the standards expected of Burdese was turned around with goals from Bonazzolli and Prelec. The tie took another twist as, for the second Coppa Italia game in a row La Sampa were reduced to 10 men. This time Lucas Tousart was the guilty party, walking for 2 yellow cards. Sampdoria held firm to take the tie to penalties, however, Federico Bonnazoli was the only player to miss, having his penalty saved by the Atalanta keeper. To make matters all the worse Duvan Zapata, on loan from Sampdoria, in a deal decided by the previous regime scored the second goal and his penalty in the win.
Champions League
The Champions League began with a trip to Madrid and the Santiago Bernabeu. Losing 3-0 to Real Madrid and their 4-2-4-0 striker-less formation, goals from Mane and Bale, exploited Sampdorias lack of European experience. A 2-0 win against a visiting Celtic team restored some hope to Sampdorias champions league campaign before a terrible performance away in Ukraine to Shakhtar.
Bonazzoli scored the only goal in the return game, before scoring a brace as Real visited Genoa. This left Sampdoria in second place heading into the final game, knowing that only a win for Shakhtar in Madrid and a loss for Sampdoria versus Celtic would result in a failure to qualify for the next round. A 1-1 draw in Glasgow was good enough for Sampdoria and included a wonderful goal from Munir, scoring his first goal of the season.
The first knockout round draw brought Manchester City as the opponents in the next round. The English champions would play Sampdoria in Genoa on the 11th of February with the return leg in Manchester on the 4th of March.
JDH Football Manager Blogs 
Amazing series! How have Lo Celso been performing compared to Praet and Saponara from the previous season? Keep up the good work.
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Not too dissimilar to be honest. I was going to write up a post about my CAM issue at some point. Last season: Praet 36 apps 3 goals 3 assists and 6.89 ave rating & Saponara 18 apps 3 goals 3 assists and 6.86 ave rating.
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