Fiorentina made it a third consecutive Serie A victory with Giacomo Bonaventura and Nikola Milenkovic, as Sampdoria remain mired in the drop zone.
The Viola were celebrating passage to the Conference League play-offs and last week’s 2-1 win at Spezia, but still missed Nico Gonzalez, Riccardo Sottil and Gaetano Castrovilli. Samp remained in the relegation zone with only one win all season. Valerio Verre was suspended, with Ignacio Pussetto, Harry Winks and Manuel De Luca injured.
It took under four minutes to break through, as Giacomo Bonaventura was ready to tap in at the near post after Dodo pulled back from the by-line, finalising a Christian Kouame counter-attack.
It should’ve been 2-0 on 12 minutes when Jonathan Ikone went on a strong run and even dribbled around Emil Audero, but he over-complicated matters and tried to set up Kouame, by which point defenders had tracked back for the block.
Samp were wasteful too, Omar Colley nodding a corner over from close range, but Fiorentina received a penalty when Audero missed a Kouame cross and collided with Luka Jovic and Gonzalo Villar instead. However, the referee changed his mind after an on-field review.
Bruno Amione was unlucky to fracture his nose after an accidental clash of heads and had to be stretchered off. Pietro Terracciano rode his luck by grabbing the ball with his hands right over the line of his penalty area.
Francesco Caputo’s wonderful curler was deflected just over the bar by Nikola Milenkovic, with Manolo Gabbiadini’s attempt wide off a defender, but Bonaventura failed to make the most of two promising headers.
Milenkovic showed him how it’s done with a trademark glancing header on Cristiano Biraghi’s corner for 2-0.
Audero kept the scoreline down using his legs to deny Bonaventura.
Sampdoria 0-2 Fiorentina
Bonaventura 4 (F), Milenkovic 58 (F)