Boulaye Dia made a huge impact on Salernitana with his first start, contributing a goal and two assists in the 4-0 demolition of Sampdoria.
The hosts were missing Emil Bohinen, Franck Ribery, Ivan Radovanovic and Matteo Lovato, but gave Boulaye Dia his first start. Samp hoped to build on last week’s 0-0 draw with Juventus.
Former Villarreal striker Dia had the ball in the net after eight minutes when meeting the Federico Bonazzoli roll across from the right. It was initially ruled offside, but then given after a very long VAR check.
Moments later, Antonio Candreva almost scored against his ex-teammates, a ferocious long-range strike palmed away by Emil Audero.
Salernitana did double their lead with a strong run down the left, Dia pulled it back and Federico Bonazzoli swept first-time into the top corner from 12 yards after a Gonzalo Villar error.
Bonazzoli wasted a golden opportunity from close range, although play had already been halted for a Dia push.
Sampdoria woke up with Luigi Sepe needing to make a triple save on the Filip Djuricic angled drive, the Francesco Caputo follow-up and eventually smother the Medhi Leris header.
Bonazzoli had the ball in the net straight after the restart, but it was disallowed as Dia was offside. Salernitana did add their third goal with another new signing, as Lassana Coulibaly set up Tonny Vilhena for a dinked finish one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
Caputo turned over from a promising position, but Salernitana completed the rout with yet another Dia assist, this time a slide-rule pass allowing Erik Botheim to spring the offside trap and sweep with the inside of the right boot across the goalkeeper, in off the far post.
Salernitana 4-0 Sampdoria
Dia 9 (Sal), Bonazzoli 16 (Sal), Vilhena 50 (Sal), Botheim 76 (Sal)