Sampdoria 1 : 1 Palermo - Sampdoria draw as Eto'o watches

Posted Monday, January 26, 2015 by PA

Samuel Eto'o watched his new Sampdoria team-mates play out a 1-1 draw with Palermo at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris after completing a medical.

The 33-year-old Cameroonian is poised to officially swap Everton for Genoa as Samp bid to harness his firepower and qualify for the Champions League, and he was in the Marassi stands on Sunday.

Eder's early opener temporarily boosted them into third place but Franco Vazquez hit back after the break and eighth-placed Palermo were unlucky not to turn their second-half dominance into a victory.

But with 34 points from 20 games, Sinisa Mihaljovic's Samp climb above Napoli and into fourth place.

Watched by prospective signing Eto'o, the former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker, Samp started brightly and opened the scoring inside six minutes.

Brazilian striker Eder swept up Roberto Soriano's pass from deep before beating Stefano Sorrentino with an angled drive that gave him his sixth goal of the season.

Matias Silvestre went close to doubling Samp's lead in the 22nd minute but Sorrentino looked alive to deny the Argentinian from close range.

Palermo responded through Edgar Barreto, who just missed the mark after collecting Achraf Lazaar's pass but it would be Samp who dominated the rest of the half.

Eder fancied another goal and was only repelled by the quick-thinking Roberto Vitiello, with Silvestre drawing a fantastic punching save from Sorrentino three minutes before the break.

Palermo regrouped over the interval and equalised four minutes after the restart.

It was a sixth goal of the campaign for Vazquez, too, as the Argentinian outwitted Emiliano Viviano having been put through by Barreto.

From that point on, Palermo went for the jugular.

After Paulo Dybala clattered the bar in the 53rd minute it appeared the Sicilians had managed to get the ball over the line when Michel Morganella's copycat effort bounced behind Viviano but back into play.

The Samp keeper caught Vazquez's effort from 30 metres and caught a lucky break as Dybala pinged the ball wide following a clever one-two with Barreto.

Vazquez was then denied by a wall of Samp players when trying to convert from a goalmouth scramble.

Samp were able to catch their breath for 10 minutes but Dybala gave them another scare 13 minutes from time as he rose to head Lazaar's cross into Viviano's feet.