Next Sunday, 8th of February 2015, a Sampdoria hurting in their pride will entertain the surprising and tricky Sassuolo at Stadio Luigi Ferraris for round 22 of the Italian Serie A, on a match during which Sinisa Mihajlovic’s boys will surely try to put an end to their recent streak of poor results by snatching the three points against the Neroverdi.

The recent weeks have been very hectic at Sampdoria with the arrival of the experienced Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o, along with his usual tantrums, and because of the team’s recent poor results that included the elimination from Coppa Italia at the hands of Inter Milan. Samp’s Serbian boss, the charismatic Sinisa Mihajlovic, was far from happy with Eto’o's lack of professionalism when he skipped a training session on Monday because he allegedly had other plans that could not be delayed. Although the media have suggested that a turmoil was already under way between the Cameroonian international and Mihajlovic, Sampdoria’s board waved off the suggestion by claiming that there isn’t any problem whatsoever.

As far as football is concerned, Sampdoria’s players are probably still wondering how they conceded such a heavy defeat against Torino last weekend. Samp sucumbed to the geniality of Quagliarela, who netted in three goals for the Turin team, and suffered the third defeat of the season.

Next Sunday’s fixture against Sassuolo will definitely be a complicated one for Sampdoria, especially if we have in mind some of the results the Neroverdi have already achieved this season. For that particular match, Sinisa Mihajlovic will probably still not be able to rely on the services of Rizzo and Muriel, both currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Sassuolo, the Emilia-Romagna team have been having a fantastic season so far and currently occupy the 11th place of table ahead of some Italian football powerhouses such as Inter Milan and Udinese. Last weekend, Sassuolo have, precisely, smashed Inter Milan at Mapei Stadium by 3-1, thus putting an end to a less impressive period of four matches without a single win.

Eusebio Di Francesco’s boys play some interesting football and they have already exhibited some vintage performances so far this season. Although their next weekend’s trip to Genoa will be far from easy, they will certainly give Sampdoria a hard time.

Despite Sampdoria’s heavy defeat last weekend, they are favourites for the upcoming match against Sassuolo, since they tend to be particularly strong when playing at home.

Sampdoria

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LDLWW

Sassuolo

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - WLDLD

Possible Line-ups

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2) - Viviano - De Silvestri - Silvestre - Romagnoli - Regini - Obiang - Palombo - Duncan - Soriano - Eder - Okaka

Sassuolo (4-3-3) - Consigli - Vrsaljko - Cannavaro - Terranova - Peluso - Magnanelli - Missiroli - Taider - Zaza - Floccari - Berardi

Prediction

Sampdoria 2 Sassuolo 1