Sampdoria 2-1 Lazio

Sampdoria recovered from a goal down to beat Serie A strugglers Lazio at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Samp coach Luigi Del Neri had warned his team not to underestimate Lazio, despite the visitors having won just one of their past eight fixtures to lie 17th in the standings, only three points above the drop zone.

His warning went unheeded however, and Lazio took the lead after just seven minutes through Sergio Floccari.

But the home side hit back with two goals in seven minutes to claim the win as Lazio ended the match with 10 men following the dismissal of Mauro Zarate.

Lazio had the first chance of the match after five minutes when Sampdoria goalkeeper Marco Storari saved with his left foot following Tommaso Rocchi's close-range shot.

And they took the lead just two minutes later when Floccari scored from a similar distance after excellent work from Zarate.

Sampdoria finally produced a response after 16 minutes when Franco Semioli found Nicola Pozzi in space, but he fired a left-footed shot wide from 20 yards.

Semioli then missed an excellent chance to get the home side back on level terms on 20 minutes.

Stefano Guberti delivered a superb cross from the right but Giampaolo Pazzini missed the ball and Semioli also failed to make contact from just yards out with the goal at his mercy.

Ultimately that miss did not prove costly and Sampdoria equalised on 29 minutes through Guberti, who was on the end of Angelo Palombo's free-kick from the left to steer the ball home from close range.

And just seven minutes later Samp were in front.

A mistake from Aleksander Kolarov allowed Pazzini the chance to shoot and he made no mistake, beating goalkeeper Fernando Muslera with a low finish.

Samp looked to extend their lead early in the second half but Palombo's low cross into the area failed to find a team-mate to apply the finish.

And just after the hour mark another excellent delivery from Palombo should have been put away by Pozzi or Stefano Lucchini.

That sparked a response from Lazio and Zarate's cross-cum-shot skimmed the bar.

At the other end Andrea Poli's effort produced a similar outcome before Lazio manager Edy Reja was sent to the stands for complaining too much about refereeing decisions not going his side's way.

And things got worse for the visitors 12 minutes from the end when Zarate was shown a straight red card for also complaining to the referee after being fouled by Palombo.

Lazio still mustered a final chance on 83 minutes but Storari kept his concentration to save well when Kolarov's shot took a deflection off substitute Stefano Mauri.