Coppa Italia: Xherdan Shaqiri scores as Inter beat nine-man Sampdoria
Thursday 22 January 2015 08:42, UK
Xherdan Shaqiri scored his first goal for Inter Milan to set them on the way to a 2-0 win over nine-man Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia last 16 after Mauro Icardi had missed a first-half penalty.
Sampdoria had Nenad Krsticic sent off after 11 minutes for tripping Shaqiri but held out for over an hour, with Icardi seeing a 37th-minute penalty saved by fellow Argentine Sergio Romero.
Shaqiri broke through in the 71st minute with a powerful finish from Lukas Podolski's pass, then the visitors had Pawel Wszolek dismissed for a second bookable offence.
In the evening’s other tie, Germany forward Mario Gomez, who has scored of only one Serie A goal this season, struck twice in the first half hour to help Fiorentina beat Atalanta 3-1 and progress.
Gomez, beset by injuries and a loss of form since joining Fiorentina in 2013, finally enjoyed some luck when his shot from the edge of the area deflected off a defender to wrong-foot Vlada Avramov in the sixth minute.
Fiorentina doubled their lead through a Juan Cuadrado penalty in the 12th minute after the referee ruled that Guglielmo Stendardo had fouled Gomez as he was about to shoot, although the Atalanta player appeared to play the ball.
Gomez then broke clear of the Atalanta defence to fire past Avramov before the half hour to seal the win and a quarter-final tie against AS Roma. Rolando Bianchi scored Atalanta's only goal five minutes before half-time.
