Sunday 21 December 2014 16:27, UK
Sampdoria missed a chance to move into third place in Serie A ahead of the Christmas break after they were forced to rescue a 2-2 draw at home to 10-man Udinese.
The Genoa club would have leapfrogged Napoli with victory at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris but, despite the fact Pedro Obiang gave them an early lead, goals from Alex Geijo and Danilo gave Udinese the upper hand.
Manolo Gabbiadini would peg the ninth-placed team back with a goal on the hour mark yet they could not quite take advantage of Thomas Heurteaux's dismissal and had to settle for a single point.
Samp started brightly and, after Gabbiadini had pinged Lorenzo De Silvestri's cross wide of a post, the hosts opened the scoring in the 12th minute.
Angelo Palombo's soft lay-off to Stefano Okaka sent the former Parma striker through on goal - Orestis Karnezis made the save only for Obiang to hook the rebounding ball into an empty net.
Panagiotis Kone almost equalised straight away, instead smashing Cyril Thereau's pass against the bar, but Udinese would not have to wait much longer to find a leveller.
In the 31st minute Geijo skipped past the onrushing Samp goalkeeper Sergio Romero to slot home, and there was still more to come from the enthusiastic Bianconeri.
Three minutes later they turned the game on its head through Danilo, the Brazilian rising highest to meet Kone's cross with his head, cutting Romero out of the equation.
Samp might have restored parity before the break but Karnezis got fists to Eder's shot towards the near post.
The Blucerchiati kept pushing when play resumed and both Gabbiadini and Eder went close inside five minutes of the restart.
Emmanuel Badu went closer for Udinese with an attempt on the slide that Romero parried, but Samp were soon racing down the other end to score.
The 61st-minute equaliser arrived courtesy of an imperious header from Gabbiadini, who glanced home De Silvestri's pinpoint cross.
Samp sensed another goal was there for the taking but failed to notch it when Gabbiadini's fearsome drive took a vital deflection off Heurtaux and span wide of the mark.
Eder fared a little better as he managed to work Karnezis with a ripping attempt yet, in the 80th minute, Geijo went dangerously close to grabbing a third for Udinese as he slammed the ball against a post with Romero beaten.
The visitors' cause was weakened in the 87th minute when French defender Heurtaux picked up a second yellow card and his marching orders to leave Udinese a man light for the final exchanges.
That new gap in the backline allowed Samp to break into the box on the stroke of full-time but substitute Fabrizio Cacciatore could not quite direct his header on target.
Veteran striker Antonio Di Natale enjoyed the last opportunity of what had been an end-to-end game when, in stoppage time, he steered the ball just wide at the end of a rapid Udinese counter-attack.
