Eusebio Di Francesco’s first Serie A game in charge as Sampdoria’s manager didn’t go to plan. At least partly. They were defeated 0-3 by Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio but the team fought until the last minute and deserve praise. The result surely doesn’t show the whole picture, as seeing it you would assume Lazio were dominating the game completely. That assumption would not be true, though.

The teams offered extremely attractive football in their first game of the Serie A 2019/20 season. Sampdoria and Lazio created tons of opportunities in front of each other’s goal and showed great potential for the upcoming fixtures.

What was lacking in Samp, though, is their defensive awareness and a bit more technicality of the attacking players. What gave Lazio’s the advantage, is the presence of a maestro like Ciro Immobile who was the reason for most of their shots and eventually scored two of the three goals.

There might have not been any “grande”, unseen tactics in the game, but there were a few repeating patterns that might have tilted the scales in Lazio’s favour. Besides that, patience, hard work and connection are what brought the Biancocelesti to the win.

In this tactical analysis, we will explain the main tactics behind the game and how both coaches tried to outwit each other.

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