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Jeremy Walker

ITALIAN favourites Sampdoria won an army of new fans at the Hong Kong Stadium with a stylish 4-1 victory over Eastern in the Satchi Italy Cup last night.

 A capacity crowd of 40,000 saw Samp turn on the style with three goals inside 11 second-half minutes to build up an unassailable 4-0 lead.

 Although Eastern's leading scorer, Dale Tempest, got on the scoresheet in the 77th minute, the supporters were already left with some magical memories of a match played in a carnival atmosphere.

 There was only one goal in the first half and it came, almost inevitably, from Samp's England captain David Platt.

 Receiving a pass from midfielder Riccardo Maspero, who is on loan from Cremonese, Platt raced towards the Eastern goal but was denied by a brave block from 'keeper Iain Hesford.

 Right-winger Attilio Lomardo retrieved the loose ball and, with the Eastern defence standing off, clipped it into the middle for Platt to turn it past Hesford in the 35th minute.

 On a hot and humid evening, when around 5,000 fans were turned away without tickets, the half-time interval became almost a belated opening ceremony, with a Mexican Wave followed by ticker-tape reception for the players at the start of the second half.

 And Samp responded with some champagne football, winning over the fans with three swift goals which highlighted why they were the top scorers in Serie A with 64 goals in 34 league games.

 After only two minutes of the second half, Platt set up Mauro Bertarelli and the striker curled a left-foot shot inside Hesford's right post from the edge of the penalty area.

 In the 54th minute, a volleyed pass from Samp's former Red Star Belgrade midfielder, Vladimir Jugovic, was met by the shiny head of Lombardo, who looped the ball beyond Hesford and under the crossbar for a classy third goal.

 There was no respite for Eastern and Platt scored his second of the night in the 56th minute, flicking the ball past Hesford in a one-on-one after splitting Eastern's tired defence.

 Eastern, who must have felt like gate-crashers at their own party, replied 13 minutes from time through Tempest, who scored from close range after Tim O'Shea's header from a Lee Kin-wo right-wing corner had been parried by Samp 'keeper Giulio Nuciari.

 Although Samp skipper Roberto Mancini was unable to play because of a hamstring injury, he was as impressed as anyone with his teammates.

 ''It was great to watch,'' he said. ''I wish I could have been out there because it was a great occasion. I was very happy with how we played.''  Samp's Swedish coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, added: ''In the first few minutes of the second half we played extremely well to score three goals.

 ''We played very aggressively, won a lot of their ball in midfield and scored on the counter-attack.

 ''It was a good match and there was a big crowd - it's just a pity that a football game like this had to be played on a pitch like that.

 ''It's very difficult to play good football because it's hard for the players to control the ball. I don't know what's happened to the pitch but the condition was not perfect.''  Eriksson had words of praise for Eastern's former England Under 21 international 'keeper, Hesford.

 ''He saved them a little bit because we had a lot of opportunities to score goals; he had a very, very good game,'' said Eriksson.

 Platt, who also scored in the 3-2 win over an Indonesian XI in Jakarta last Sunday, said the Sampdoria players had adapted to the conditions and were able to keep going.

 ''We've been in this part of the world for a week now and we've got used to the heat and humidity, so the conditions weren't as difficult as they were on Sunday.

 ''As long as you are sensible and play in a nice, compact formation, you can let the ball do the running.

 ''At the start of the second half we picked it up a gear and scored three times; their defence was a bit square and we were able to get behind it.''  With only three men at the back, Sampdoria were able to dominate midfield with five across the middle, including the impressive Riccardo Maspero.

 And with man-markers Brian Hayes and Tim O'Shea tied up with strikers Mauro Bertarelli and Andrea Tentoni respectively, this left plenty of room for Platt to surge through the midfield.

 One player who caught the eye was Michele Serena, who showed strength in defence and quality in attack as he patrolled the left flank.



Sensational Sampdoria