Francesco Caputo got his first two goals in the Sampdoria jersey, followed by an Antonio Candreva curler, picking up a 3-0 victory away to Empoli.
The hosts were lurching from victory at the Juventus Stadium to a home defeat against Venezia, missing Lorenzo Tonelli and bringing Liam Henderson into the starting XI. Samp were still without injured Manolo Gabbiadini and Albin Ekdal was only fit for the bench.
Emil Audero had to stick out a leg to deny Leonardo Mancuso from point-blank range in the second minute, as Patrick Cutrone pulled it back from the by-line.
Guglielmo Vicario did the same on Antonio Candreva at the near post, and Sampdoria broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark.
Candreva’s through ball allowed Ciccio Caputo to spring the offside trap and sweep past the on-rushing Vicario. The veteran striker refused to celebrate his debut Samp goal, as it was against his former club.
Mancuso went close twice on assists from Cutrone and Riccardo Marchizza, but Caputo almost got a second on the counter, denied by Vicario’s legs.
After the restart, Mikkel Damsgaard’s angled drive was fingertipped round the far post, then on the resulting corner Damsgaard tested Vicario again.
Samp started the second half very strong, Caputo smashing his finish against the crossbar from point-blank range after a deflected Omar Colley header landed in his path.
The goal was coming and arrived moments later, as Bartosz Bereszynski pulled back from the right, Caputo sent a defender to ground with a shimmy and drilled into the far bottom corner.
Cutrone had the ball in the net on 63 minutes, but it was disallowed for a tight offside and the ball going out of play in the build-up.
Candreva put the result beyond all doubt with a wonderful individual strike. He gathered Fabio Quagliarella’s cross-field pass, took on a defender and curled an unstoppable right-foot effort into the far top corner.
Audero still needed late saves in driving rain to keep the clean sheet on Szymon Zurkowski and Andrea Pinamonti.
Empoli 0-3 Sampdoria
Caputo 31, 53 (S), Candreva 70 (S)