Venezia shot themselves in the foot with two first half howlers gifting goals to Francesco Caputo and slide further towards relegation, as Sampdoria get a huge boost.

Watch the highlights here.

Serie A Highlights: Venezia 0-2 Sampdoria

This was a relegation tussle on the Laguna, with the hosts in the bottom three and only four points adrift of their opponents, even with a game in hand.

Venezia were hoping to end their four-month home winless streak, but Sergio Romero, Luca Lezzerini, Antonio Vacca, Dennis Johnsen and Michael Cuisance were out. Samp missed Manolo Gabbiadini and Mikkel Damsgaard.

The deadlock was broken thanks to an astonishing howler from Venezia goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa, who took far too many touches in his own penalty area and was robbed by Abdelhamid Sabiri, allowing Francesco Caputo to score into an empty net.

Serie A Liveblog inc Juve-Salernitana, Roma-Lazio, Bologna-Atalanta

Thomas Henry’s header went over the bar, but the second goal also came from the hosts shooting themselves in the foot. Luca Fiordilino lost it cheaply playing out from the back, Maenpaa only parried Stefano Sensi’s strike as far as Caputo for another tap-in.

Venezia were more aggressive after the restart and had penalty appeals, but it was David Okereke who kicked Morten Thorsby as they both went for a loose ball in the six-yard box, rather than the other way around.

Thomas Henry had been warned repeatedly in the first half not to continue his protests, the referee even went to the touchline and told Venezia coach Paolo Zanetti he was on thin ice after a yellow card. So when Henry did eventually get sent off for dissent, Zanetti was absolutely livid with his striker, grabbing him by the shirt and screaming obscenities in his face. Because the blasphemous phrases were so clearly on camera, the coach will no doubt get suspended too.

It was almost a hat-trick for Caputo, sent clear by a slide-rule pass, but he fired over one-on-one.

Venezia 0-2 Sampdoria

Caputo 24, 38 (S)

Sent off: Henry 86 (V)

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