38′ GOALLLL! 2-0 SAMPDORIA! Damsgaard picks the ball up on halfway, coasts past three or four Inter players before reaching the right of the area. The youngster then drills a cross to Keita, who flicks a right-footed effort past Handanovic at the near post.
M. Damsgaard
Assist
38′ Assist Mikkel Damsgaard
36′ Keita thinks he has room to shoot from 25 yards out but Skriniar is alert to the danger and throws his body in the way. Jankto then reaches the byline on the left, however, the Sampdoria winger fails to beat the first man with his cross towards the near post and Inter clear.
35′ Jankto touches the set-piece short and Candreva races inside towards the left of the area before unleashing a right-footed effort, which gets blocked behind for a corner by Brozovic.
33′ The away side cannot get near to the hosts as they confidently play from side to side, looking incredibly assured in possession. Ranieri’s team then win a free-kick near the left-hand touchline, which Candreva and Jankto stand over.
31′ Gagliardini wanders in from the left-hand touchline and rather selfishly opts to shoot from 30 yards out. The Inter midfielder’s long-range effort takes a deflection and then trickles through to Audero in the hosts’ goal.
29′ After a fairly chaotic opening 30 minutes, proceedings have calmed down with Ranieri’s team happy to manipulate possession from side to side and invite the visitors to press them.
27′ Conte’s side attempt to take a corner quickly but the referee is not happy and demands it gets retaken. Brozovic eventually delivers to the far post but Colley hooks a clearance high and long down the pitch.
26′ Sanchez squares up Candreva and drives to his left on the edge of the area before Keita clumsily catches the Chilean’s heels to offer the visitors a free-kick. Young fires the set-piece towards the back post, where Martinez heads wide.
25′ The hosts have now scored in each of their last 16 Serie A games at home: the last time they had a similar streak on home soil in the top-flight was back in 1994 (16).
A. Candreva
Penalty Goal
23′ GOALLLLLL! 1-0 SAMPDORIA! Candreva makes no mistake from the spot, sends Handanovic the wrong way and whips his right-footed effort into the top left corner to open the scoring.
N. Barella
Yellow Card
23′ Barella gives away the penalty and also gets booked for stopping Tonelli’s shot at the back post which seemed destined for the far corner.
23′ SAMPDORIA PENALTY! Referee Vareli analyses the screen on the touchline and then adjudges Barella to have handled the ball when blocking Tonelli’s headed effort from the hosts’ corner.
22′ The hosts are screaming and appealing for handball once more as it looks like Barella has blocked Tonelli’s header with his hand. For the third time in the match, VAR is going to get involved to review this decision.
21′ Silva queues up on the edge of the area and finally receives the loose ball before his right-footed effort is deflected behind without troubling Handanovic in the visitors’ goal.
19′ If Martinez scores in this game (nine goals for him in 2020/21so far), Inter will have two players with 10+ goals after the first 16 matches in a Serie A season for the first time since 1958/59 (Angelillo and Firmani).
17′ NO PENALTY! After VAR gets involved, referee Valeri overturns his decision and awards Sampdoria a free-kick on the edge of the area instead. Candreva then hits the resulting free-kick into the wall and the danger is averted by Conte’s defence.
L. Martínez
Yellow Card
16′ Martinez gets the first booking of the game for the ball hitting his hand on the edge of the area after Jankto had volleyed towards goal.
16′ PENALTY TO SAMPDORIA! The hosts’ first corner of the game gets headed away towards the edge of the area, Jankto volleys with his left foot and the ball smashes into Martinez’s hand. Referee Valeri does not hesistate and points to the spot but VAR is going to have a look at this as it looked like Martinez was not inside the area.
14′ CROSSBAR! Candreva earns a free-kick for his side to the right of the area. The loanee then delivers the set-piece towards the penalty spot, where Tonelli produces a glancing header which cannons into the crossbar!
12′ OFF THE BAR! After Sanchez’s penalty miss, Young follows up on the rebound and smashes a left-footed effort from close range into the bar. Chance after chance comes for Inter but Conte’s men have failed to convert as of yet.
E. Audero
Penalty Save
11′ SAVED! Audero reads where Sanchez is going to put his penalty, dives low to his right and saves it to keep the score at 0-0.
A. Sánchez
Penalty Miss
11′ PENALTY MISS! Sanchez drills his right-footed penalty to the left, Audero guesses the right way and parries the Chilean’s effort away!
11′ PENALTY TO INTER! Referee Valeri consults the monitor on the touchline, deems Thorbsy to have handled the initial corner and awards the visitors a penalty!
9′ From the resulting corner, Skriniar is afforded far too much time in the area and manages to hook a volley towards the far post. Unfortunately for the visitors, the centre-back’s effort just goes the wrong side of the left-hand post. VAR is going to have a quick check for a handball in the area too from Thorbsy before play can restart.
8′ SAVE! Inter work possession down the right-hand side, with Sanchez eventually finding the ball to the right of the area. The Chilean takes a touch before rolling it to Young, who curls a right-footed effort towards the top right corner, where Audero is there to tip the English wing-back’s effort over the bar.
6′ Thorbsy leads Sampdoria’s press and on two occasions the visitors fail to play out from the back. On the third attempt, Conte’s men break from defence before Sanchez’s cross is dealt with at the front post by Tonelli.
4′ Hakimi whips a pass down the line for Sanchez to chase, however, Colley intercepts before Barella is far too enthusiastic in the middle and needlessly brings down Silva, which hands the hosts a free-kick inside their own half.
3′ Martinez reaches the byline on the right and attempts to drill across the face of goal but Colley does well to block it behind for the first corner of the game. Skriniar meets the set-piece but then cannot direct his header towards goal.
2′ The hosts start intent to press high but Conte’s men are more than capable of playing through the press before the move breaks down at the feet of Barella.
1′ Referee Paolo Valeri blows his whistle to get this Serie A fixture underway!
The players are making their way onto the pitch and shortly kick-off will be upon us.
Inter have won each of their last six Serie A games against Sampdoria; only in 1951 have the Nerazzurri recorded seven consecutive wins against the Blucerchiati in the competition.
Antonio Conte makes two changes to his last starting eleven. Sanchez partners Martinez up top, instead of Lukaku, who suffered a minor thigh injury against Crotone. Gagliardini also comes in for Vidal to join Brozovic and Barella in midfield.
Claudio Ranieri opts for three changes from the hosts’ loss at Roma. Albin Ekdal is suspended so Silva joins Thorbsy in the middle. Ahead of them, veteran Quagliarella gets a rest, which hands an opportunity to youngster Damsgaard. The other change sees Keita replace Valerio Verre, who misses out entirely.
SUBS: Romelu Lukaku, Christian Eriksen, Danilo D’Ambrosio, Daniele Padelli, Aleksandar Kolarov, Ivan Perisic, Ionut Radu, Stefano Sensi, Andrea Ranocchia, Arturo Vidal, Matteo Darmian.
INTER (3-5-2): Samir Handanovic; Stefan de Vrij, Milan Skriniar, Alessandro Bastoni; Ashley Young, Marcelo Brozovic, Roberto Gagliardini, Nicolo Barella, Achraf Hakimi; Alexis Sanchez, Lautaro Martinez.
SUBS: Mehdi Leris, Antonino La Gumina, Nicola Ravaglia, Kristoffer Askildsen, Gaston Ramirez, Kaique Rocha, Lorenzo Avogadri, Fabio Quagliarella, Vasco Regini, Karlo Letica, Bartosz Bereszynski.
SAMPDORIA (4-4-2): Emil Audero; Tommaso Augello, Omar Colley, Lorenzo Tonelli, Maya Yoshida; Morten Thorsby, Antonio Candreva, Adrien Silva, Jakub Jankto; Keita, Mikkel Damsgaard.
The visitors are a point behind top-flight leaders Milan and were most recently 6-2 winners over Crotone, in which Lautaro Martinez bagged a hat-trick. Their hosts sit in 11th after a two-game losing streak, which saw them go down to Sassuolo and Roma.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Serie A fixture between Sampdoria and Inter.
K. Baldé
Goal