Sampdoria vs. Inter Milan [R] Pre/During/Post Thoughts
 

Official Match Preview from Inter Milan
Samp against the big clubs
Sampdoria are without a victory against the big clubs so far this season. The Blucerchiati have recorded 2 draws and 5 defeats in their matches against the top six teams: AC Milan, Roma, Juventus, Inter, Parma and Lazio (2 matches).

Blucerchiati Bazzani-dependent
Of Sampdoria's 28 points, 14 have been earned thanks to decisive goals from Fabio Bazzani (50%). No other team contesting the 2003/04 Serie A championship has relied so heavily on one player. With his goal against Lazio, Bazzani has brought his tally for the season to 11, one better than his previous record of 10 goals for Perugia in 2001/02.

No Samp goals against division leaders
In their last 21 home matches (in Serie A & B), Sampdoria have scored on 19 occasions, with a total of 35 goals. The only matches they failed to score in were against 2002/03 Serie B leaders Siena and 2003/04 Serie A leaders AC Milan.

Vieri v Antonioli
Along with Mazzantini and Sereni, Francesco Antonioli is Christian Vieri's favourite target. The Nerazzurri striker has scored 8 goals against the current Sampdoria keeper: 2 in Atalanta 2-0 Bologna (1995/96 Coppa Italia), 1 in Bologna 0-1 Lazio (1998/99 Serie A), 1 in Lazio 2-0 Bologna (1998/99 Serie A), 1 in Inter 2-1 Roma (1999/00 Serie A), 2 in Roma 3-2 Inter (in 2000/01 Serie A) and 1 in Inter 3-1 (2001/02 Serie A). No other player has put more goals past Antonioli.

Inter prolific in last 30 minutes of matches
Exactly 48.4% of Inter's 33 goals in the 2003/04 season have come in the final half hours of matches: 8 from 61’ to 75’ and 8 from 76’ to 90’, including additional time.

Adriano: a goal every 93.6 minutes
Adriano is unstoppable. So far this season he has scored 13 goals in 16 matches and has played a total of 1,218 minutes. That's a goal every 93.6 minutes.

Sounds like it was an interesting match.
 

90' Conte (2nd yellow..Red Card)

85' Doni (pen) 2 - 2 (Sampdoria)

78' 1 - 2 Vieri (Inter)

77' Zenoni (Yellow Card)

57' Cipriani 1 - 1 (Sampdoria)

31' 0 - 1 Vieri (Inter)

27' Helveg (Yellow Card)

4' Conte (Yelllow Card)

It was an interesting game. Inter had the better of the possession overall, but were under siege for a long period in the second half, during which Samp got their first goal.

Adriano came on for Cruz (who seemed pretty much useless) after Sampdoria equalized. He didn't work too well with Vieri - they both want to be the center of attention. But, they had more scoring chances from the run of play after the Adriano sub than before. On the second goal Inter just outmuscled the Samp defenders in the box. Having both Adriano and Vieri in there might not make much sense tactically, but it does mean that the opposition can't shut down Inter's attack just by assigning a couple guys to harass Vieri.

The late penalty was kind of a bummer, seemed like a needless foul (although I didn't see it very clearly on the replay, so I dunno). I think Inter should have won this one. The defense looked OK - Sampdoria arrived at the area too easily, but the back line did a pretty good job of preventing good looks at the goal. I'm really unimpressed by Adani, though.