Sampdoria fought back twice to lead Udinese 3-2 with a truly extraordinary Antonio Candreva strike, but were pegged back in a 3-3 thriller.
Both sides were stuttering after some poor results, particularly finding it difficult to score goals. Manolo Gabbiadini, Valerio Verre and Ronaldo Vieira were still out of action for the hosts, with Isaac Success, Nehuen Perez and Ilija Nestorovski missing for the Friulani.
Maya Yoshida risked an own goal after eight minutes, redirecting a Gerard Deulofeu effort onto the upright.
Moments later, Emil Audero had his gloves stung by Destiny Udogie at the near post, but the Sampdoria goalkeeper was surprised when Gerard Deulofeu squared a ball for Roberto Pereyra to simply redirect with the inside of the boot from 12 yards.
Samp equalised with a well-worked move, even if the finale wasn’t quite what was intended. Francesco Caputo pulled back for Antonio Candreva, whose strike bounced off the woodwork and hit Jens Stryger-Larsen to ricochet into the net.
Adrien Silva’s scorcher was tipped over the bar, then Audero had to make a desperate save from point-blank range on Samir.
On the resulting corner, Samir’s header came off the upright and Beto turned in the rebound. It was at first ruled offside, before the decision was overturned by VAR, as Fabio Quagliarella was keeping Beto level.
Within seconds of the restart, Caputo had pounced on a horrible Walace backpass and went down under Marco Silvestri’s challenge. Contact was minimal and Caputo seemed to trip a little beforehand, but Quagliarella converted the penalty for his first goal of the season and a Sampdoria equaliser.
The game was turned around completely and Samp took the lead for the first time with a genuine contender for goal of the season. Candreva was in space almost 25 metres from goal and suddenly unleashed a ridiculous right-foot strike that dipped, swerved and bent mid-air into the far top corner.
Beto tried to replicate it, his rising strike on the turn skimming the far post, but the drama wasn’t over, as VAR over-ruled the offside flag for an Udinese equaliser. Bram Nuytinck’s glancing header flicked on a corner, Audero got a fingertip to it and Fernando Forestieri bundled over the line.
It remained wide open with chances at both ends, so ultimately the 3-3 draw was the right result.
Sampdoria 3-3 Udinese
Pereyra 15 (U), Stryger-Larsen og 24 (S), Beto 44 (U), Quagliarella pen 48 (S), Candreva 69 (S), Forestieri 84 (U)